Η
Γερμανίδα Sarah Luzia Hassel προσέφυγε στο Διεθνές Ποινικό Δικαστήριο
της Χάγης καταγγέλλοντας εγκλήματα κατά της ανθρωπότητας…
Η
Hassel-Reusing, η οποία είναι γνωστή στον Ο.Η.Ε. για τον αγώνα της υπέρ
των κοινωνικών και ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, υπέβαλε προσωπικά στις
21.11.2012 προσφυγή 30 σελίδων και πολυσέλιδων παραρτημάτων με
αποδεικτικό υλικό.
όλη η καταγγελία από το justiceforgreece
German
civil and human rights activist files charge at the International
Criminal Court at Den Haag for suspected crime against humanity
The
civil and human rights activist and constitutional plaintiff Sarah
Luzia Hassel-Reusing, who is known up to the UN, has personally, last
week at the 21.11.2012, filed a paper of 30 pages with a comprehensive
appendix with evidence at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at Den
Haag. She refers to the already existing charge of the Greeks Georgios
Tragkas, Antonios Prekas, Panagiotis Tzenos, and Dimitrios Konstantaras,
who have filed their charge against Christine Lagarde (CEO of the
International Monetary Fund, IMF), Jose Manuel Barroso (President of the
EU Commission), Herman van Rompuy (President of the European Council),
Dr. Angela Merkel (German Chancellor), and Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble (German
Minister of Finance) for suspected crime against humanity (art. 7 Roman
Statute). The Greek charge, so Hassel-Reusing, comprehensively explains
the damage at the Greek health system and the interpretation of the
Roman Statute.
The German charge leaves open, who are the
perpetrators, but shows, where to find them. It focuses on the damages
to the health of the Greeks, caused by the cuts into the health system
and by the starvation (art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute). For this
purpose, the German charge examines the conditions of the Troika, which
lead to the humanitarian catastrophe up to the withholding of vital
medicaments. In view of conditions like the reduction of the employers’
contributions to the social insurance by 5 %, like austerity measures
mainly at the health insurance and at the pension insu-rance, and like
the blocked account for alle state revenues, which has hit hospitals as a
shock, and that in times of lower revenues of the of the public health
insurance because of unemployment, and because of the reduction of the
wages and of the pensions by the Troika, the humanitarian catastrophe
especially in the health sector has been predictable and so must have
been deliberately accepted.
The ill people carry the main burden via
moderating fees. In addition to that, the patients already have,
because of the liquidity problems of the public health insurance, to
advance most of the costs of medicaments, and often also for medical
disposable material.. A further aggravation is to be prognosticated
because of the budget surplus of 4,5 % (related to national level,
provinces, municipalities, and social insurance), which the Troika has
demanded.
Furthermore, the German charge shows, by means of
statistics and media reports, that already in 2009, before the
conditionalities of the Troika, the Greek minimum wage has been below
the absolute poverty line, so that already then many Greek have had too
little, to be able to pay for food and for accomodation, not to speak of
the costs of clothing and transport, which are also included in the
absolute poverty line. By the conditions of the Troika like
interventions into the law on wage agreements, the loosening of the
protection against wrongful dismissal, the reduction of the pensions,
and high moderating fees in the health sector, as well as by the de
facto payments by the patients themselves because of the liquidity
problems of the public health insurance, the number of Greeks, who are
not able any more to pay rent and food, has significantly risen.In
addition to that, the number of suicidies has risen by 45 % because of
unemployment and of the fear of poverty. Just remember the pharmacist,
who has shot himself at the place of the constitution.
A crime
against humanity means, that someone intendingly attacks a civilian
population and knows about this attack, and does this either with a
large scope or systematically (art. 7 Roman Statute). In this regard,
the German charge focuses on attacks against health (art. 7 par. 1 lit. k
Roman Statute), here as a result of excessive interventions into the
universal human rights to food (art. 11 UN Social Pact) and to health
(art. 12 UN Social Pact).
It proves the large scope and the system
especially regarding the „little treaty change“ (art. 136 par. 3 TFEU).
This would oblige to always new mechanisms for the „financial
stability“ of the financial sector, especially of the big banks. The
talk about the „euro safeguarding“ or „stability of the euro currency
zone as a whole“, provenly, only serves the deception of policy and
public. The already known mechanisms, which are going to be based on
art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, are those of the European financing mechanism
(„Greece Support“, EFSM, EFSF, and ESM) and those for the establishing
of the EU economic government (tightened Stability and Growth Pact,
Imbalance Procedure, and Budgetary Surveillance). By means of all these
mechanisms, the securing of the financial sector is going to be
financed by means of systematical conditions at the cost of all states
of the eurozone with a strictness as in the „practice“ of the IMF. The
charge proves by many documents, what this strictness means, at the
example of the results of IMF conditions in many countries. The
conditions of the IMF and of the World Bank are, according to Prof. Dr.
Jean Ziegler, former UN special rapporteur for the human right to food,
main cause no. 2 for the starvation in the world. According to the
economist and former IMF employee Davison Budhoo, the IMF alone has on
its conscience, because of its conditions, the lives of millions of
children. The same excessive strictness is now, for the first time
completely provable by EU documents, systematically planned by means of
art. 136 par. 3 TFEU for the whole eurozone, and the Greeks are, in the
view of the Hassel-Reusing, being used as experimental subjects for
that, and regarding Greece already today a strictness according to the
„practice“ of the IMF is being applied.
For this purpose, the same
unscrupulous powers, which are here abusing the European Union for the
securing and the enrichment of the big banks and as a rammer against the
universal law, even risk, seemingly open-eyed, the self-disintegration
of the EU. For, according to art. 53 Vienna Treaty Law Convention,
international treaties, which are incompatible with „ius cogens“, are
void und so invalid. To the „ius cogens“ belong, inter alia, the UN
Charter, the universal human rights, and the Roman Statute (incl. the
prohibition of the crime against humanity in art. 7 Roman Statute).
Art.
136 par. 3 TFEU is incompatible with the universal human rights and
presumably incompatible with the Roman Statute. With the enactment of
this paragraph, the whole TFEU and so also the crucial legal basis for
the very existence of the European Union would become invalid.
The
charge recommends for the investigations to find out the perpetrators,
NOT to limit the focus to the five persons mentioned in the Greek
charge, but also to look closely at the counselling sphere. Among this
sphere, especially the influence of persons from the surroundings of
Goldman Sachs, Bilderberg, and Deutsche Bank is very conspicuous. It is
crucial to respect the presumption of innocence, and to investigate, who
has the concrete responsibility for the excessiveness of the conditions
against food and health at Greece respectively for the systematical
expansion of the excessive strictness by means of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU
in the meaning of a strictness as in the „practice“ of the IMF. In view
of the humanitarian catastrophe at Greece, the soon start of formal
criminal proceedings by the ICC is urgently necessary. [Comment: You can
help in this direction by signing the petition to the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) --> Sign the petition ]
Links:
-charge by Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing (in English)
https://docs.google.com/viewer? …
Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing Thorner Str. 7
42283 Wuppertal (Germany) +49 / 202 / 2502621
human rights acitivist
to the International Crime Court
to be delivered to the Chief Prosecutor Mrs. Fatou Bensouda
Maanstraat 174
2516 AB, The Hague (Netherlands)
subject: -Greek charge regarding art. 7 Roman Statute
reference: -further crucial evidence especially regarding the objective part
Dear Madam, Mrs. Chief Prosecutor,
21.11.2012 (edited)
I
address myself as a German citizen to you in the awareness, that the
German people confesses itself to inalienable und invulnerable
(universal) human rights as the basis of every human community, of
peace, and of justice in the world (according to art. 1 par. 2 Basic
Law, which is protected by the eternity guarantee of art. 79 par. 3
Basic Law). In his famous speech at the 06.09.1946 the then US foreign
minister Mr. Byrnes has demanded, that Germany had to bind itself to
human rights and to peace as a precondition, which would allow the USA,
to accept that Germany might get to wealth again. In the Parlamentarian
Council, the body, which has worked out and concluded the German Basic
Law, Dr. Seebohm (German Party) demanded in his plenary speech at the
08.05.1949 a legally binding obligation of Germany to human rights and
to peace, in order to enable other states to trust Germany again („Der
Parlamentarische Rat“, Band 9, Harald-Boldt publishing house, p.562).
This means the legal obligation to the universal human rights, for the
wording of art. 1 par. 2 Basic Law has been developed starting from a
draft of the first paragraph of the preamble of the Universal
Declaration of Human Right (UDHR), and the other international human
rights systems, which are valid today in Germany, have been come into
existence after the the Basic Law (1949) (European Human Rights
Convention of the Council of Europe concluded in 1950, and the EU Basic
Rights Charter concluded in 2000 and made legally binding in 2009).
Dr.
Süsterhenn (Christian-Democratical Union) demanded in his plenary
speech in the Parlamentarian Council at the 08.09.1948 („Der
Parlamentarische Rat“, Band 9, Harald-Boldt publishing house, p.56),
that the universal human rights, if they are valid for UN trustee areas,
then even more must be valid for the occupied Germany. Also the German
Constitutional Court has confirmed art. 1 par. 2 Basic Law as a
connection to the universal human rights (no. 96 of the Bodenreform III
judgement, BVerfGE 112,1). In addition to that, the Constitutional Court
has in no. 225 of the Lisbon judgement at the 30.06.2009 recognized the
peace principle (obligation to peace by art. 1 par. 2 Basic Law, not to
be misunderchanged with the prohibition of aggressive war by art. 26
Basic Law).
This means for me as a German citizen (official
confirmation, that I am a German citizen, is attached), as a part of the
sovereign (the people), to stand protecting the universal human rights.
The
Greek journalists Georgios Tragkas, Panagiotis Tzenos, and Antonios
Prekas, and the Greek politician Dimitrios Konstantaras (Nea
Democratica), have filed a charge regarding the suspicion of crimes
against humanity (art. 7 Roman Statute). The charge regarding art. 7
Roman Statute is directed against Christine Lagarde (CEO of the IMF),
Herman van Rompuy (President of the European Council), Jose Manuel
Barroso (President of the EU Commission), the German Federal Chancellor
Dr. Angela Merkel, and the German Federal Minister of Finance, Dr.
Wolfgang Schäuble.
You find the English text of the charge at the following link:
www.scribd.com/doc/protected/100418463
According
to art. 15 par. 1 Roman Statute, the Chief Prosecutor can, propriu
motu, initiate investigations on the basis of information, which is
filed at the International Crime Court for the prosecution of crimes,
which are within the jurisdiction of the court.
This
letter supports the above-mentioned Greek charge with crucial pieces of
information regarding the objective part, especially regarding the
systematic attack and the large scope according to art. 7 par. 1 Roman
Statute. For this purpose, I especially look at those actions, which
lead to severe damages at health (according to art. 7 par. 1 lit. k
Roman Statute).
In addition to that, part IV.1 of this letter shows
the real suspected motive, namely to give more for the stability of the
financial sector (especially of big banks according to the „too big to
fail“ – hypothesis), than this is allowed with respect to the financial
means, which must remain to fulfill those obligations, which are secured
by human rights, and than the peoples themselves, if they were orderly
informed and asked, would ever allow.
The investigation at the ICC of
the systematical accepting of the humanitarian catastrophe at Greece
is, at the same time, necessary, in order to prevent its systematical
spread onto all states of the eurozone, and to prevent the pushing back
of the universal human rights and the Roman Statute by means of art. 136
par. 3 TFEU.
I request for the start of investigations on Greece,
even though the completion of the investigations might take a long time
with respect to older already pending proceedings. Because here, the
start of investigations can still prevent the, because of art. 136 par. 3
TFEU, threatening creation of cases of art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman
Statute in all states of the eurozone. What the IMF has done to the
health system in countries like Albania, Bangla Desh, Brazil, Ghana,
India, Peru, Ruanda, Romania, Somalia, Ukraine, and Vietnam, is
threatening to all states of the eurozone because of art. 136 par. 3
TFEU. The Greek people already today is being used as a test case within
the eurozone for this. Even if the pain, which the IMF has caused to
the peoples outside Europe, has been enabled possibly also because of a
neglect of the control of representatives of European states over the
IMF, may this not go on account of the peoples of Europe, which have
been left systematically in ignorance regarding the IMF for decades. The
losses of human lifes in the eurozone to be expected are rather
comparable to Ruanda (hundredthousands) than to the recent cases at
Nigeria (Boko Haram suspected for over 1.000 deaths) or Guinea (army
suspected for over 150 deaths). So I request to at least give the
official start of the investigations on Greece the timely priority,
which is adequate to systematic attack and to the large scope.
(for
numbers on Nigeria and Guinea see taz-article „Spart sich die Welt ihr
Weltgericht“ of the 15.11.2012, Link
http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/digitaz/artikel/ressort=au&dig=2012%2F11%2F15%2Fa0115&cHash=75451582
500fbd21ed22ec150aac90f7 )
I. the connection between the Roman Statute and the universal human rights
I
have, as well as the Greeks, who have filed the charge, the legal point
of view, that the Roman Statute is to be interpreted according to the
universal human rights. Historically and regarding legal philosophy, the
universal human rights are the basis for putting crimes like genocide
or crimes against humanity under hard penalties. Among the universal
human rights, besides the human dignity (art. 1 UDHR), which is the
legal basis of the indivisibility of the universal human rights, the
universal human right to health (art. 12 UN Social Pact) is of eminent
importance. According to no. 1 general comment no. 14 to the UN Social
Pact, the sense of the human right to health is the ability to lead a
life in dignity. Also for this reason, the human right to health is the
only universal human right, which explicitely garantuees the, for the
respective human being, highest attainable standard of health. According
to no. 32, the principal prohibition of retrogression (which results
from the social progression clause of art. 2 par. 1 UN Social Pact) has
the effect regarding the human right to health, that the state has
regarding retrogessions at the human right to health, not only the
burden of proof, that all available financial means have already been
exhausted before, but also the the burden of proof, that these
retrogressions are justified with a view to the total of the rights of
the Social Pact. This means, if cuts need to be made regarding the
realization of the universal social human rights, then these cuts need
to be done, relatively less regarding health than regarding any other
social human rights.
Also regarding the universal human right to food
(art. 11 Social Pact), the central importance of the human dignity
(art. 1 UDHR) and of the human right to health (art. 12 Social Pact) is
shown. For, according to no. 8 general comment no. 12 to the UN Social
Pact, the core of the human right to food includes the availability of
food in sufficient amount and quality needed for the nutritional needs
of every single human being, which is free of detrimental substances and
acceptable in the respective culture; and the access to food should
take place sustainably and should not violate the enjoyment of other
human rights.
This
shows the special importance of the universal human rights to health
and to food also for the interpreta- tion of art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman
Statute.
II. On the definition of a crime against humanity
A crime
against humanity (art. 7 Roman Statute) includes attacks, which are
large or systematical, and which are done against the civil population
with knowledge of the attack. We regard in this case especially as
relevant lit. k (encompasses also affectedness of social groups), and
lit. h. The largeness and sytematical attack becomes most visible at the
example of the Greek health system., and at the example of art. 136
par. 3 TFEU.
It is sufficient, if either the large scope or the systematical attack is there.
III. The systematical attack on the health at Greece
III.1 how the conditions against Greece systematically destroy the Greek health system
The
memorandum of understanding of the trroika (EU Commission,
International Monetary Fund IMF, and European Central Bank ECB) in the
scope of financial support of the EFSF of February 2012 obliged Greece,
to direct all revenues of the state onto a blocked account, in order to
preeminently pay the external creditors (see German and English
translation for the German Bundestag of the memorandum of unterstanding
via Greece from February 2012, file number „Drucksache 17/8731“).
http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/087/1708731.pdf
The blocked
account refers, as the Hellas Frappe article „How Venizelos Robbed State
Institutions To Complete Bond Swap“ of the 26.03.2012 shows, not only
to future revenues, because, at the 09.03.2012 credits of ca. 1.4
billion € of various public institutions, among them universities and
hospitals, have been complety taken away without warning from one day to
another, and have been transferred to the blocked acocunt at the Bank
of Greece, which has had already been implemented according to the
memorandum of understanding. Even public hospitals have suddenly been
without any credit on their banking account with respective effects on
their work.
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/03/how-venizelos-regime-robbed-state.html
In
addition to that, the Troika obliges Greece, to reduce the total amount
of the employers’ contribution to the social insurance by 5%, alone by
cuts in services and moderating fees, and without any compensation
through tax-financed subsidies. Moreover, the Troika wants Greece to
reach a budget surplus of 4.5 % of the GDP. The Troika wants to reach
this surplus, especially by deep structural reforms at the side of the
expenditures, among them drastical cuts in the social insurances and
closing down parts of the public administration, which are regarded to
be not cost-efficient enough. The Troika demands from the social
insurance concrete measures for the protection of its central parts
(which in most states could mean pension and health insurance) and of
the weakest of the Greek society, but the Troika does not demand, that
these measures must be sufficient for the preservation of the central
parts and for the survival of the poorest groups of the population. The
Troika put the main burden of the austerity measures at the social
system. Besides that, the Troika also demands austerity measures in the
defense area. The permanent marginalization of the social system is so
important to the Troika, that for the case of a budgetary relief, it
explicitely does not want to allow the relief of the social system, but
to enforce a further reduction of the social insurance contributions.
Apart
from that, the revenue of the Greek social insurance has also decreased
because of the recession, the unemployment (to which the loosening of
the protection against wrongful dismissal, which the Troika has had
enforced in 2010, has contributed), and because of reductions of the
wages.
With
the conditions of the Troika, the humanitarian catastrophe, has
obviously willingly be risked. The assessment, who has the
responsibility for that under penalty law, is the task of the
International Criminal Court. I do regard it as possible, that persons
outside the political positions have a big part of the responsibility.
III.2 the humanitarian catastrophe in the Greek health system
The
money in the Greek public health insurance has become so scarce, that
the ambulant patients as well as the patients in hospital have to
advance the money for their medicaments.
taz article „keine Heilung auf Rezept“ of the 05.06.2012
www.taz.de/!94746/
taz article „Krise in Griechenland: Rentner stürmen Ministerium“ of the 05.09.2012
www.taz.de/!108028/
Also
the article „Greek Pensioners ‘Storm’ Health Ministry“ from September
2012 confirms, that the health insured people have to advance the
payment for their medicaments. In addition to that, they even already
have to pay in advance for ambulant visits to the doctor, which reminds
of the situation at Romania.
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/09/greek-pensioners-storm-health-ministry.html
The
article „Minister of Health Puts End to Agony of Cancer Patients Who
Could Not Find Medi-cines“ of the 05.06.2012 exposes, why the supply
with cancer medicaments at Greece has been relieved in the middle of
2012. It has been not more than a momentary benefit in face of the
elections.
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/06/minister-of-health-puts-end-to-agony-of-html
The
article „Crisis in Health Care Hurts Access to Vital Medicines“ of June
2012 reports on a press confe- rence of Greek patients’ associations on
„the barbarity of the economic crisis and the devaluation of human
life“ in view of the effects of the liquidity shortage in the Greek
public health insurance. Multiple sklerosis patients need about 1.000,- €
for medicine per month; without these medicaments, their disease
proceeds. The association of dialysis patients of Northern Greece
reports on casualties because fo the lack of dialysis filters, which are
are supplied by the pharmacists only after payment. The association of
young diabetes patients reported on problems with blood donations
because of a lack of medical materials. Cancer patients, whose
medicaments cost between 200,- € and 4.000,- € per patient and month,
often remain medically unsupplied because of the costs.
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/06/crisis-in-health-care-decreases-access.html
89,7
% of the Greeks have, according to a poll, difficulties, to afford the
medicine they need. At Attika, the cardiology and the vascular clinic
have been closed. At Rhodos, Chios, and Lerissa, patients have to pay by
themselves for disposable materials.
At the 8th international heart
congress, an increase of depressions and of strokes, and a
quadruplication of heart attacks with at the same time difficulties in
paying the heart medicaments has been reported. According to the Greek
health ministry, the number of suicides has increased by 45 % from the
first semester 2010 to the first semester 2011.
In an open letter to
all Greeak political parties and to the ministries of health and of
finance, 23 associations of cancer patients have described the suffering
of this group of patients, who not only have to pay for their medicine,
but even for their disposable materials, und of whom many have been
waiting (according to the charge) already for 6 months, if and when
their insurance will reimburse their costs to them. The lack of
medicaments in hospitals at Greece has already reached the extent of a
humanitarian catastrophe, as the medical association of Greece has
warned in a letter to the United Nations.
(source for the in the following paragraph quoted numbers is the Greek charge already filed to the ICC)
III.3 human rights expert criticizes Greek austerity measures
In
view of the special importance of the universal human rights for the
interpretation of the Roman Statute, also the opinion of the independent
expert of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on the effect
of the financial crisis on the realization of the universal human
rights, is of eminent importance, because it shows, that the conditions
of the Troika do not show any serious orientation on the universal human
rights.
The independent expert of the UN Human Rights Council on
foreign debt and human rights, Cephas Lumina, has, already in 2011,
stated the violation of universal human rights by the then second
austerity package for Greece (article „Greek austerity measures violate
human rights, UN expert says“ of the 01.07.2011).
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38901&Cr=austerity&Cr1
He
has explicitely emphasized the preeminence of the universal human
rights, and has urged the Greek government to remain proportionate
regarding the austerity measures. He recommended, especially to respect
the universal human rights to food, water, and housing (all art. 11 UN
Social Pact) and to fair and equitable conditions (art. 7 UN Social
Pact). He regarded as especially affected by the then privatizations and
expenditure cuts poor, elderly, jobless, and handicapped people.
Mr.
Lumina explicitely called ECB, IMF, and EU Commission, to remain
conscious of the effects of their conditions on human rights for Greece
and other states, and he predicted towards them, that there will be no
permanent solution to the debt problem without taking into account the
human rights.
He did not speak of an only insufficient consideration
of the human rights, but his formulation „if the human rights of the
people are not taken into account“ exposes, that the conditions of the
Troika even do not show, in how far the Troika has considered the human
rights at all in their process of drafting their conditions.
And
these critical words even directly in view of the UN special
organization IMF have been published at a time, when Mr. Lumina could
not have known, how deeply the Greek health system would be attacked by
the conditions of February 2012.
III.5 the attack on the nutrition at Greece
The
study „Issues in measuring absolute poverty: The case of Greece“ by
Thanasis Maniatis, Yannis Bassakios, George Labrindinis, and Costas
Passas from May 2011 deals with the definition of an absolute poverty
line for Greece. For the the assessment regarding human rights as well
as for the assessment regarding universal penalty law, the absolute
poverty line is crucial. There is also a relative poverty line, which
says only, how many per cent of the population have an income of less
than 50% respectively 60% of the average income. Table 1 on page. 6 of
the study shows the little meaningfulness of the relative poverty line,
where countries like Hungary or Slovakia have a significant better
ranking than the significantly richer Canada, where even for the poorest
one of the best health systems of the world is available, which is
shown by the good ranking of Canada within the human development index
of the UNDP.
link to Greek study: http://www.iippe.org/wiki/images/8/80/CONF_2011_Thanasis_Maniatis.pdf
link to human development index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_EN_Table1.pdf
The
study defines the poverty line for the year 2009 according to the
needed financial means for the areas accomodation, food, clothing, and
transport, differenciated each for households with one to five persons,
and differentiated to tenants and to persons, who only have to pay the
additional costs for their accomodation. This way, the study come to the
following costs of living for the year 2009 (page 27):
| Persons | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Poverty line with rent (in €) | 809,38 | 1186,37 | 1495,37 | 1820,33 | 2189,24 |
| Poverty line without rent (in €) | 518,38 | 803,37 | 1022,73 | 1252,33 | 1517,24 |
Who
has less than these amounts to his disposal at Greece, has too little
for either accomodation, food, clothing, or transport. The deeper the
income is below these numbers, the higher is the probability, that the
respective persons are starving.
The study has been completed in 2011
for 2009. The creation of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Greek
health sector has been caused and is being caused, as shown in parts
III.1 and III.2 of this letter, especially by the conditions of the
Troika since February 2012. For the definition of the minimal living
income at Greece today, it would also be necessary to add to the numbers
above the average moderating fees or costs completely carried by the
patients, either relating to all Greek patients, or related to the
health status of the poorer groups of the population, or to
differentiate the numbers to be added more to specific expensive, but
not rare, diseaes (such as e. g. cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, or
kidney diseases).
As far as expensive diseases appear, starvation probably also exists for people with an income above the absolute poverty line.
The study shows in table 3 on page 28, that the standard wage NGCLA in 2009 for a single person is at
590,-
€ and for two working parents at together 1.300,- €. That has been the
situation before the interventions of the Troika into the law of the
collective labour agreements. And it has already been at that time below
the absolute poverty line. In how far there have or are higher
collective labour agreements for specific segments of the economy, is
not known to me.
According to the Ekathimerini article „Over 2 mln
Greeks living below poverty line in 2010“ of the 02.11.2012, referring
to the Greek statistics authority ELSTAT 2,34 million Greek people have
lived in 2010 below the poverty line.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_02/11/2012_468462
In
this regard, Ekathimerini refers to the absolute poverty line 2010
according to ELSTAT of 6.591,- € per person (so 549,25 € per month). The
number of private households below the poverty line in 2010 has been
901.190.
These ELSTAT numbers are confirmed by the article „Over 2.3
mln Greeks living below poverty line“ of the Azeri medium APA of the
03.11.2012.
http://en.apa.az/news/181884
And the poverty line
according to ELSTAT is already set very low. Because a more exact look
into table 2 of the above mentioned Greek study of May 2011 shows, that a
one person – household has needed already in ts 2009 for accomodation
(rent and additional costs) and food together (431, 69 € + 101,13 € =)
542,82 €, so that with the poverty line according to ELSTAT nearly
nothing would remain for clothing and transport.
According to the
Phantis article „More than 400,000 children hungry at Greece“ of the
06.04.2012, 20,1 % of the households and 439.000 children at Greece are
living below the poverty line.
www.phantis.com/news/more-400000-children-hungry-greece
Phantis
concludes from this the undernourishment of these children. These
numbers are from the report „The State of the Children in Greece Report“
of UNICEF Greece, published in March 2012.
link:http://www.unicef.gr/pdfs/State_of_the_Children_in_Greece_Report_2012_Summary.pdf
The
UNICEF Greece report, in turn refers regarding the 439.000 children
under the poverty line to numbers of the EU statistics authority
EUROSTAT for 2010.
Unfortunately, it is not known to me, at which monthly amount UNICEF Greece defines the poverty line.
Of these 20,1 %, according to Phantis, the nutrition of 21,6 % (so related the total population 4,34 %) lacks of animal protein.
According
to Phantis, the poverty line at Greece is at 470,- € per month. Der
Phantis-Artikel sees the official poverty line related to a household of
4 persons. I presume, that a poverty line of 470,- € per person of such
a household respectively for the total household (4 * 470,- € =)
1.880,- € per month is meant.
Phantis says, that, according to
official estimations, 21% of the Greeks are living below the poverty
line. The medium itself estimates 25% (2,8 million of a total of 11,2
million Greeks). The Greek network on the fight against poverty (EAPN)
is quoted, that soon 30% will be reached; this number has recently be
confirmed by a study of the foundation for economical and industrial
research (IOBE).
In addition to that, according to Phantis, 400.000 Greek families are without any income from work.
Even
though I do not know the exact number of starving people at Greece, the
numbers explained above, however, show clearly, that in a large scale
and systematically, it is being accepted, that millions of people at
Greece are threatened of starvation.
III.5 drastical cuts at Portugal and Spain and hunger at Spain
At
Spain, a humanitarian catastrophe in the area of nutrition already
exists because of the austerity measures. Spain and Portugal are moving
in big steps towards a humanitarian catastrophe in the health
sector.This shows, that the disregard of the social universal human
rights regarding the austerity measures for the obtai- ning of the means
for the banks, can lead to humanitarian catastrophes within few years
or even only months, regarding to which questions regarding art. 7 par. 1
lit. k Roman Statute arise.
In the parts III.1+III.2 of this letter,
the connection between concrete conditions of a memorandum of
understanding and its effects for the health have, at least for Greece,
been shown.
For Spain and Portugal, for this purpose, also the
humanitarian effects would have to be compared to the conditions, in
order to relate, what has been effected by the conditions of the Troika
within EFSM respectively EFSF, what by the conditions within the deficit
procedure, what is possibly caused by the policy in these countries.
But that is not the topic of this letter. Here shall, at the moment
insofar only be shown, that the interference of the ICC regarding Greece
is necessary also in the sense of the preventing art. 7 Roman Statute
for Portugal and Spain. Already the official start of investigations on
Greece by the ICC will set a decisive sign, in order to save the lives
of countless patients and of starving long-term jobless people also at
Portugal and Spain.
Latest after the enactment of art. 136 Abs. 3
AEUV, austerity measures are threatening in all states of the eurozone,
which systematically intervene so deeply especially into the human right
to the, for the respective human being, attainable highest degree of
health (art. 12 UN Social Pact), but also into the universal human right
to food (art. 11 UN Social Pact), that in all these states including
Germany the crimes against humanity according to art. 7 par 1 lit. k
Roman Statute are threatening (see part IV. of this letter).
This is
shown by the attack on the health system of Portugal, where, according
to the taz article „ein Monatslohn für den Staat“ of the 17.10.2012 with
19,5% the biggest procentual cuts are planned in the health sector.
Within a few months, if such drastical cuts were implemented, also at
Portugal questions regarding the Roman Statute could arise.
www.taz.de/1/archiv/print-archiv/printarchiv/digi-artikel/?
ressort=wu&dig=2012%2F10%2F17%2Fa0078&cHash=7f2d249bc2f961c58e314a22d0d1791
Moreover,
friends of me from the province Alentejo have told us, that the
hospital responsible for the region can only do an emergence supply any
more, and that you already today have to drive from there with a broken
bone or after a heart attack more than 250 kilometers, if you need more
than an emergency treatment. The situation at Portugal is already today
much worse, than it had been visible by the original memorandum of
understanding at 2011.
According to the taz article „Spanien spart
sich seinen Sozialstaat“ of the 25.10.2012, now also at Spain, at least
22,6 % from the tax revenues for the health system shall be streaked
out. www.taz.de/1/archiv/digitaz/artikel?
ressort=au&dig=2012%2F10%2F25%2Fa0045&cHash=446287ecd7fa9eba54bf3bea93e63877
And
the inhumanity is exposed in very clearness at Spain, where the Red
Cross, for the first time in the history of the country, has asked for
food donations in view of 300.000,- starving people (taz article
„Spanien abgewertet“ of the 12.10.2012).
www.taz.de/1/archiv/print-archiv/printarchiv/digi-artikel/?
ressort=wu&dig=2012%2F10%2F12%2Fa0157&cHash=0b7863dd0a47968dd5af10cee8a2f786
III.6 further destruction of the health sector at Romania
Romania
is one of the states, which have got, under EU regulaton (EG) 332/2002
an emergency loan with strict conditions. This regulation is similar to
the EFSM of the european financial mechanism, but for EU member states
outside the eurozone.
At
Romania, not only the reduction of the pensions by 15% has been
demanded and been rushed through by government and parliament, but also
moderating fees for the ambulant medical supply, even though at Romania
already before the IMF (respectively the Troika) for stays at the
hospital everything from medicaments to material has had to be paid by
the patients themselves, and the health insurance has paid nearly only
the work of the doctor, and even though the hygiene at the hospital is
so bad, that many patients are infected there with tuberculosis. Now
even the amubulant health care shall be taken away from the poor. 150 to
200 of the 435 Romanian hospitals are going to be closed and the rest
to be transferred to the Romanian municipalities, most of them also are
close to bankruptcy. Between 9.300 and 10.000 beds are going to be
reduced in those hospitals, which are not directly going to be closed.
The mentioned numbers are from the year 2010, as the follwing links prove:
www.wsws.org/de/2010/jun2010/ruma-j09-shtml
www.wsws.org/de/2010/apr2010/ruma-a5.shtml
www.wsws.ord/de/2010/jun2010/ruma-j18.shtml
Also the taz confirms,
that there have been since 2010, and still are, drastical cuts in the
Romanian health system because of the conditions of the Troika.
According to the article „Gott sei Dank nicht mehr in die Klinik“ of the
17.01.2012, the „health supply in the poorest EU country“ is collapsing
„piece for piece“. The health expenditures are with 3,5% to 4% of the
GDP only at the half of the EU average. 40.000 doctors are missing in
the country, tenthousands of doctors and male nurses have emigrated. In
some rural regions there is „scarcely health supply, in some small towns
only very limited.“
According to the article, an orderly medical treatment is only available with bribery. The sufferers are poor and old people.
Because
of the austerity measures, among them, besides drastical cuts in the
health system, also cuts of the wages in the public sector by 25% and of
the pensions and of many social benefits by between 15% and 25%,
meanwhile already 3 million Romanians have emigrated, most of them to
Italy, Spain, and Germany. www.taz.de/!85782/
Romania’s health sector has already been severely damaged by the IMF in the 1990ies (part V.2 of this letter).
IV. proof of the systematical nature of the attack by means of the „little treaty change“ (art. 136 par. 3 TFEU)
IV.1 safeguarding the financial sector as the real cause of the excessive strictness
The
pain caused by the excessive conditions at the cost of the Greeks, has
not primarily to do with the Greeks. The liquidity problems of the
country have only been used as an opportunity, in order to be able to
establish more and more mechanisms for the securing of the financial
sector. This is the real suspected motive of the crime.
The Greeks
have been chosen as only the first victims. The Germans like all
inhabitants of the eurozone are going to be treated later, namely of the
enactment of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU.
A new art. 136 par. 3 TFEU is going to be inserted into the EU primary law, whose wording is as follows:
„The
Member States whose currency is the euro, may establish a stability
mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of
the euro area as a whole. The granting of any required financial
assistance under the mechanism will be made subject under strict
conditionality.“
Links: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/118578.pdf 
This
does, however, not really aim at the stability of the common currency,
neither at the inner stability, nor at the stability of the exchange
rate, and also not at putting the public finances onto their feet again,
but only at the „financial stability“.
This is proven by:
-par. 2+4 of the considerations of the 16./17.12.2010 to the initiation of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/118578.pdf
-no.
11 of the conclusions of the European Council of the 23./24.06.2011,
according to which the Prime Ministers want to do everything for the
„financial stability“
www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/123075.pdf
The
conclusions of the summit of the 24./25.03.2011 prove the definition of
„financial stability“ as the stability of the financial sector, i. e.
especially of banks.
www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/120296.pdf
By
means of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, one wants to create always new
mechanisms for the safeguarding of banks, of whom hitherto especially
two groups of mechanisms are known, namely those of the European
financial mechanism („Greece support“, EFSM, EFSF, and ESM) and those
for the enabling of the EU Commission as the „EU economic government“
(tightening of the Stability and Growth Pact, Imbalance Procedure, and
Budgetary Survaillance).
In the European financial mechanism, the
conditions are always drafted by the „Troika“, consisting EU Commission,
IMF, and ECB, under the lead of the EU Commission, and are decided by
the financial ministers respectively by their permanent secretaries (in
the EFSF) or (as a possibility in the ESM) by directors, who are chosen
by the financial ministers. Within the Stability and Growth Pact and the
Imbalance Mechanism as well as in a part of the Budgetary Surveillance,
the conditions are drafted by the EU Commission and decided by the EU
Council of Ministers. Within a part of the Budgetary Surveillance, the
EU Commission itself decides on the conditions. And the ESM prohibits
via collective action clauses every sovereignly managed state
bankruptcy, in order to force the countries of the eurozone, when they
are bankrupt, into a state insolvency procedure, in which they get
additional political conditions by their private creditors (part IV.4 of
this letter).
All these mechanisms of the „European financial
mechanism“ aim at giving loans to states of the eurozone with liquidity
problems, in order to enable them to pay their hitherto creditors, or
(only with EFSF and ESM) to recapitalizie banks, and the countries get
„strict“ conditions at the cost of their inhabitants. The tightening of
the Growth and Stability Pact aims at strict conditions for states with
too high deficit or too high debt, the Imbalance Procedure at strict
interventions of the EU Commission into into any matters of wage,
finance, or economic policy of the member states, and the Economic
Surveillance at any interventions of the EU Commission into the draft
budgets of the governments of the member states.
All these mechanisms
are primarily directed to bringing together enough financial means for
the securing of the „financial stability“ of the financial sector at the
cost of the other inhabitants of the member states.
To the
populations of the EU member states, however, it has been pretended,
that the aim was the protection of the currency and of the public
finances. It seems very improbable, that the Prime Ministers of all 17
states of the eurozone or even alle 27 Prime Ministers of all countries
of the European Union would ever consciously put the „financial
stability“ of the financial sector above the rights of their
inhabitants.
I rather believe, that for the question of guilt before
the ICC for the suffering caused against the Greeks, it could be of
significant importance, who has invented this deception.
IV.2 the obligation to the „strictness“ as the system of inhumanity
All
financial assistances in the scope of mechanisms connected to art. 136
par. 3 s. 1 TFEU for the protection of the „financial stability“ of the
financial sector would be connected, according to art. 136 par. 3 s. 2
TFEU, to „strict“ conditions.
The
„strictness“ of the conditions is for all these mechanisms planned as
in the „practice“ of the IMF (Ecofin Council (economic and financial
ministers in the EU Council of Ministers) of the 10.05.2010)
respectively „very strict“ according to no. 49 of the report of the
„task force“ of the 21.10.2010. The „task force“ included the federal
finance ministers of alle EU member states as well as EU Commissioner
Olli Rehn, the then ECB chef Jean-Claude Trichet, the chairman of the
Eurogroup Jean Claude Juncker, and the President of the European Council
Herman Van Rompuy, who at the same time leaded the task force.
conclusions
of the economic and finance ministers (Ecofin) in the Council of
Ministers of the 10.05.2010 (file number SN 2564/1/10)
http://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/__Anlagen/2010/20100510beschluesseeurolaenderfinanzministe
r,property=publicationFile.pdf
recommendations of the „task force“ of the 21.10.2010
www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/117326.pdf
The ESM, in addition to that, is obliged by art. 3 ESM Treaty, to make „strict“ conditions.
www.eurozone.europa.eu/media/582866/02-tesm2/de12.pdf
The
economic government is obliged by consideration no. 3 in connection
with art. 6 of EU regulation 2011/385 (COD), to impose „strict „
conditoins (see also part IV.3 of this letter)
http://ec.europa.eu/europa2020/pdf/proposal_strength_eco_en.pdf
In
addition to that, all conditions within the EFSF are, according to the
preamble of the EFSF Framework Treaty, planned as strict as they are
towards Greece:
see EFSF Framework Treaty of the 07.06.2010
http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/nn_1270/DE/Wirtschaft__und__Verwaltung/Europa/20100609-
Schutzschirm-Euro-Anlage__1,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf
in 2011 concluded modified EFSF Framework Treaty (draft of the 26.08.2011)
http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/upload/pdf/110902_EFSF_Rahmenvertrag_Anpassung.pdf
The
„practice“ of the IMF is something completely different than the
content of the statute of the IMF. In the statute of the IMF, there is
no obligation to inhumanity at all. By means of an excessive immunity
against penalty law and against liability as well as by means of
excessive payment, however, the standards of moral and of viewing the
world are, within the IMF, in a way shifted, resulting in IMF conditions
without any respect to basic rights and to human rights of the
inhabitants of the debtor countries.
The Roman Statute is the basis
solely for the prosecution of crimes, which have been committed at the
01.07.2002 or later, like the suspected crime against humanity against
the Greek people. For crimes before that date, a prosecution is not
possible by the ICC, but possibly by international ad hoc – courts like
those for Ruanda and Jugoslavia or by national courts of the respective
victim state.
In view of the systematical obligation of the
conditions to a strictness as in the „practice“ of the IMF, which would
be valid with the enactment of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, it is however
crucial for the interpretation, what a strictness according to the
„practice“ of the IMF means, to look also at older conditions – for the
proof, that an obligation to the strictness as in the „practice“ of the
IMF implies, to intervene, for the securing of the financial sector, so
deep into the human rights to health (art. 12 UN Social Pact) and to
food (art. 11 UN Social Pact), that this reaches systematically up to
art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute.
The initiation of an
investigation by the ICC is necessary also in order to set a crucial
sign just in time, in order to prevent the systematic inhumanity from
being entrenched with the rank of EU primary law by means of art. 136
par. 3 s. 2 TFEU, because this would put this strictness, from the
perspective of the EU, over any law of the United Nations !
IV.3 the Budgetary Surveillance and the instrumentalization of EU funds
EU
regulation 2011/385 (COD) is together with EU regulation 2011/0386
(COD) planned as the EU secondary law legal basis for the Budgetary
Surveillance of the states of the eurozone by the EU Commission. You
find it at the link:
http://ec.europa.eu/europa2020/pdf/proposal_strength_eco_en.pdf
Via
consideration 3 and art. 6 of EU regulation 2011/385 (COD), the EU
Commission could impose on every country of the eurozone, which receives
financial support by one or several other states, by the IMF, the EFSF,
or the ESM, additional „strict“ conditions, whereas these mainly found
consist in stricter versions of already exististing conditions from the
deficit procedure (of the Stability and Growth Pact) and of the
Imbalance Procedure.
If these tightened conditions are not fulfilled,
as additional sanctions towards the respective country would be used
the cut of the EU funds (named in consideration no. 7) ELER agricultural
funds (especially for extensive and for ecological agriculture), EU
social funds, EU fishery funds, EU structural funds (for rural regions),
and EU cohesion funds (for poor regions).
EU regulation 2011/0386
(COD) enables, via its articles 5, 6, and 9, the EU Commission, to
intervene in any draft budgets of the countries of the eurozone.
http://ec.europa.eu/europa2020/pdf/proposal_monito_assess_en.pdf
The
national and regional parliaments of the states of the eurozone could
still decide on their budgets, but the non-compliance of the „opinions“
(art. 6) of the Commission by the member states would take them auto-
matically (art. 9) into the deficit procedure of the Stability and
Growth Pact, even if their deficit and their debts are not excessive, or
if they even reduce their debts.
By means of art. 21 of EU
regulation 2011/0276 (COD), cutting the same EU funds as by means of EU
regulation 2011/385 (COD) is planned for the case of non-compliance with
conditions. The difference is, that according to art. 21 par. 1 EU
regulation 2011/0276 (COD) would prescribe the instrumentalization for
putting through the conditions of (lit. b) the deficit procedure of the
Stability and Growth Pact, of (lit. c) the Imbalance Procedure, of (lit.
d i.) the EFSM, of (lit. d ii.) the financial mechanism for the EU
member states without the euro (as e. g. Romania) (regulation (EG) Nr.
332/2002), and of (lit. d iii.) of the ESM.
http://ec.europa.eu/edf/BlobServlet?docId=233&langId=en
The
combination of any interventions into the draft budgets and of the
instrumentalization of the named EU funds would make especially the
poorer regions, the family agriculture, and the ecological agriculture,
and even food aid via the eu social fund, dependend on the mercy of the
Commission. The possibility of healthy respectively of corporate-free
nutrition in the states of the eurozone would become a political pound
of the Commssion – and that combined with a strictness according to the
„practice“ of the IMF (art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, part IV.2 of this letter).
In
the case of non-compliance with the conditions, agricultural
enterprises would be ruined, and food aid would be reduced or ended, as a
result of the cuts into the mentioned EU funds. Both would increase the
number of starving people in the eurozone and would contribute to
further cases of art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statuten. Also this shows
the systematical attack and the large scope.
IV.4 political power partly in the hands of the private creditors via the state insolvency procedure of the ESM
The
ESM is the hardest of the mechanisms tied to art. 136 par. 3 TFEU. The
even in comparison to the IMF stronger immunity of the ESM will probably
only be broken by art. 27 Roman Statute or by constitutional judgements
to come. The ESM is planned as an independent international
organization with, at first, a rank of simple international law, thus
below the „ius cogens“, below the EU law, and below every national
constituion. A later elevation of the ESM Treaty to the rank of EU
primary law, however, is planned according to the prolog and the epilog
of the statement to the euro summit of the 09.12.2011.
link:
http://ralpherns.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/documento_cumbre_bruselas_9d_2011.pdf
Additionally to the obligation to the strictness according to the
„practice“ of the IMF, art. 12 par. 3 ESM
Treaty
obliges all countries of the eurozone, to attach collective action
clauses to all of their bonds, which they emit starting from the
01.01.2013.
As the law „Gesetz zur Änderung des
Bundesschuldenwesengesetzes“ (file number 17/9049) in Germany as one of
the accompanying laws to the ESM proves, these collective action clauses
are made to prohibit to the countries of the eurozone any souvereignly
managed state bankruptcy, and to force them instead into the state
insolvency procedure of the ESM, where on them are imposed political
conditions not only by the Troika, but also by the private creditors,
where the biggest private creditors of the states (the big banks) would
have high shares of the votes because of the level of their financial
claims. Link:http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/090/1709049.pdf
By
means of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU and the ESM, an anti – human rights,
partial, and radical representation of bank interests is going to be
legalized over the whole eurozone, without any respect to the human
rights of the population, which exists with the IMF at least since the
1980ies, and which is called „Vienna Initiative“ (see also part V.4 of
this letter).
IV.5 how art. 136 par. 3 TFEU threatens to oust the universal law
The
IMF law has the rank of normal international law, it stands like the
vast majority of international law just one stage above the simple
national law (art. 27 Vienna Treaty Law Convention), and so clearly
below the universal human rights, which belong to the „ius cogens“.
The
IMF itself is not bound to the universal human rights, but because of
the preeminence of the universal human rights in comparison to the IMF
law, no debtor state has ever been entitled or obliged, to fulfill the
conditions of the IMF any further, than they are compatible with the
universal human rights.
The UN Charter is, according to its own art.
103, the highest-ranking international treaty. Because the UN Charter,
at the same obliges to the respect for the sovereignty of the states
(art. 2 par. 1 UN Charter), the UN Charter itself, as a result, is
positioned directly below the national constitutions of the UN member
states, but above any other international treaties.
The rank of the
universal human rights, i. e. the UDHR and the human rights treaties of
the United Nations, is, regarded from the perspective of the universal
human rights law itself, below the UN Charter (art. 29 no. 3 UDHR), but
above the rest of the international law (art. 28 UDH, art. 1 no. 3 UN
Charter), except for the Geneva and Haag Conventions of humanitarian
law, which are equal-ranking to the universal human rights (ICJ advisory
opinion of the 08.07.1996 “Advisory Opinion of the International Court
of Justice of 8 July 1996, The Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear
Weapons, Reports 1996”).
The UN Charter and the universal human
rights belong to the „ius cogens“, the highest category of nearly
world-wide valid international law (no. 279-282 of the judgement of the
EU Court of First Instance on file number T-306/01, and the ICJ advisory
opinion of the 08.07.1996 mentioned above).
Also the prohibition of
the criminal acts, which are included in the Roman Statute, must be „ius
cogens“, because before the Roman Statute there has been a resolution
of the UN General Assembly of 1946, but a ratified international treaty
has existed not before the Roman Statute. The ad hoc courts at
Nuremburg, on Japan, on Ruanda, and on Yugoslavia can, in view of the
prohibition derived from human rights (art. 11 par. 2 UDHR) of
retroactive penalty, only have had a valid legal basis within the „ius
cogens“.
In my legal point of view, also the Roman Statute itself is
„ius cogens“, because prescriptions like that for the one for breaking
through even the immunity of other international organizations (art. 27
Roman Statute) is a clear argument for „ius cogens“.
The TEU and the
TFEU and the protocols and annexes to these two treaties are the EU
primary law. The EU primary law has, from its own perspective, a rank
above the national constitutions of the member states (art. 1 TEU, art.
51 TEU, declaration no.17 in the annexes to TFEU and TEU). This stands
in contradiction to the rank of the UN Charter and of the universal
human rights, because also the EU law is international law.
The
constitutional courts react, depending on their constitutional
situation, differently on the rank claim of the EU law. According to
continuous jurisdiction of the Polish constitutional court, the Polish
constitution is the highest law at Poland and so stands also above the
EU law (see e. g. Judgement of the 16.11.2011). The German
constitutional court regards since the Lisbon judgement of the
30.06.2009 the constitutional identity (especially basic rights and
structure principles, but also the state objectives peace principle
(art. 1 par. 2
Basic
Law, see foreword of this letter) and European integration (art. 23
Basic Law)) as standing above the EU law (basic principle 4 and no.
216+217 Lisbon judgement), but allows the EU primary law a rank above
the rest of the German Basic Law (no. 240) – except for the common
foreign and safety policy of the EU (no. 255 + 342), which has the rank
of only normal international law. According to basic principle 3 of the
Lisbon judgement, the implementation of the EU law has to leave enough
space for the universal human rights, but the German constitutional
court has not clarified, if it regards the EU secondary law (EU
guidelines, EU regulations, etc.) or the universal human rights as
higher-ranking.
Also the Latvian constitutional court has in its
judgement of the 22.12.2009 (file number 2009-43-01) confirmed the
preemince of the basic rights and structure principles of the Latvian
constitution before the EU law.
In art. 29 par. 4 no. 10 of the Irish
constitution, however, an explicit preeminence of the EU law before the
Irish constitution is prescribed.
The EU law, even though the high
rank it claims for itself, does NOT belong to the „ius cogens“, because
this category comes only into consideration for law, which is at least
nearly world-wide valid.
These examples show, that the rank claims of
the EU law and of the universal human rights stand in compe- tition to
each other, and that many EU member states regard the EU primary law
(except for the common foreign and safety policy CFSP), but not
necessarily the EU secondary law, as standing above the universal human
rights.
If now art. 136 par. 3 TFEU entered into force, then, at
least from the view of the EU law and of most EU member states, the
systematical obligation to always new mechanisms for the „financial
stability“ with a strictness, which ignores the universal human rights
and reaches on to art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute, would stand above
the universal human rights and also above the Roman Statute.
This
woud imply, that because of art. 136 par. 3 AEUV, the human rights and
also the Roman Statute would systematically only be applied in the
countries of the eurozone any more, as they are compatible with
conditions of the Troika, whose strictness would reach, because of the
obligation to the „practice“ of the IMF, on to art. 7 par. 1 lit. k
Roman Statute.
In addition to that, art. 351 TFEU (the former art.
226 TEC) obliges the EU member states, as far as these are bound to
international treaties, which collide with EU primary law, to eliminate
these incompabilies with the EU primary law.
How far this obligation
can go from the perspective of the European Court of Justice (ECJ),
shows its judgement of the 01.02.2005 in the case Commission v. Austria
(file number C-203/03) (no. 61 of the judgement), that Austria had to
terminate the ILO Convention no. 45 for the protection of women in
mining with effect to the next possible date provided for in that
treaty, because this convention collidies with an EU guideline (with EU
secondary law). The collision has been, that the EU guideline has given
more importance to the equal rights between men and women, and the ILO
convention has given more importance to the protection of women against
kinds of work in mining, which are hard or are risky to health.
So in
the judgement on C-203/03, the ECJ has forced Austria to terminate its
membership in an ILO convention with the rank of normal international
law, because this convention has collided with EU secondary law, even
though the then art. 226 TEC (today art. 351 TFEU) is a legal basis for
an obligation to terminate international treaties only in cases of
collisions with EU primary law.
Link:http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d2dc30db92332c9a56434bba8c9fbf45957d246
3.e34KaxiLc3qMb40Rch0SaxuKbNn0?
text=&docid=49900&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=553937
After
the enactment of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, art. 351 TFEU would have the
effect, that the countries of the eurozone would, from the point of view
of the EU law, be obliged to loosen their obligations to the universal
human rights and to the Roman Statute of the ICC in a way, that would
make sure, that they could not impede always new mechanisms connected to
art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, which have strictness according to the „practice“
of the IMF and ignoring all human rights. This would most probably
mean, that the countries would be obliged, to add a reservation to the
universal human rights treaties ratified by the respecitve countries, to
the UDHR, an to the Roman Statute, in the way, that the universal human
rights and the universal penalty law would not be applicable any more
to the respective state, insofar as the conditions of mechanisms
connected to art. 136 par. 3 TFEU are concerned.
At
Greece, already today the universal human rights to health (art. 12 UN
Social Pact) and to food (art. 11 UN Social Pact) are violated by the
conditions of the Troika to such an extent and so systematically, that
there obviously is a case of art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute, but by
means of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU the universal human rights themselves
would be pushed aside.
IV.6 how art. 136 par. 3 TFEU would lay the axe on the EU itself
According
to art. 53 Vienna Treaty Law Convention and to art. 64 Vienna Treaty
Law Convention, international treaties, which are incompatible with the
„ius cogens“, are void.
Art. 136 par. 3 TFEU with its obligation to
cruelty and at the same time with its claimed rank above all law of the
United Nations, is, as especially shown in the parts IV.2 +IV.3 of this
letter, obviously incompatible with the „ius cogens“ of the universal
human rights and of the Roman Statute.
Art. 71 Vienna Treaty Law
Convention includes the possibility, to change international treaties,
which collide with „ius cogens“, in order to avoid the voidness of these
treaties.
This shows, that art. 136 par. 3 TFEU, which would
entrench the inhumanity, which is happening at Greece, into EU primary
law, and which proves the systematical nature of this cruelty, threatens
the legal existence of the TFEU and thus threatens the legal existence
of the EU.
This isn’t any originary conflict between the EU and the
UN at all, but a „hostile takeover“, as one would name it at the stock
exchange, of the EU for the securing and the enrichment of banks, for
which is even being risked, that the very legal basis of the existence
of the EU becomes invalid.
V. exemples for the strictness of the „practice“ of the IMF, reaching on to art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute
This
part serves to further prove, what a strictness according to the
„practice“ of the IMF is, and that for the case of non-action of the ICC
in view of the suspected crimes against humanity at Greece according to
art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute, one can prognosticate comparable
systematical excessively deep interventions in all countries of the
eurozone because of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU.
V.1 prognosticable conditions against the food supply
The
credit conditions of the IMF destroy intentiously the ability of the
states, to independently provide their own population with food, and
they serve for the effect, that less areas are available for food
cultivation and more areas for the export.
A central motive for the
intentious decline of the food supply of the whole population of a
debtor state seems to be, that this way whole peoples, and not only
governments and parliaments, can easier be forced to obey to other
conditions and to the debt servicing. Because food is, in contrast to
capital, no societal fiction, but necessary for survival. The conditions
always aim at making impossible a food supply independent of the world
market. Most often, the currency devaluation imposed by the IMF, leads
to market-distortingly high prices for the import of fertiliziers,
pesticides, tractors, etc.; in addition to that, price limits for these
imports are prohibited. The purchasing power of the domestic customers
of the farmers is destroyed by the enforced reduction of wages and of
social benefits. Social institutons for the farmers, e. g. for the
distribution of water and for additional subventions in times of market
price declines, are abolished. Support shipments of highly subventioned
agrarian surpluses are, where trade liberalization does not suffice,
used intentiously to ruin whole economical segments of family farmers.
Where all this is not enough, sometimes smaller agricultural enterprizes
are simply prohibited (e. g. at Peru) or projects are financed (e. g.
at Mozambique), which imply the expulsion of formers. With the
destruction of the family farmers structures and with the aim of the
bigger enterprizes to the export, the states do not only become
dependend on the import of fertilizer, pesticides, etc., but also on the
import of food, which they have to pay in hard currency – and that
together with an own currency, that has been artificially devaluated at
the command of the IMF.
According to the chapter “50 Jahre Bretton Woods” („50 years Bretton Woods“) in Uwe Hoering’s book
“Zum
Beispiel IWF & Weltbank” („for example IMF and World Bank“)
(Süd-Nord Lamuv publishing house), riots have taken place because of
cuts into subventions imposed by the IMF:
-1985 at Bolivia (because of cuts into food and fuel subventions)
-1986 at Zambia (because of cuts into food subventions)
-1989 at Venezuela (because of cuts into fuel and transport subventions)
The
IMF has demanded, even during the Asia crisis, also from Indonesia cuts
into the food and fuel subventions („Die Chancen der Globalisierung“,
Joseph Stiglitz, Pantheon publishing house, p. 304).
The cuts into food subventions as IMF imposed conditions are no singular cases, but rather usual:
„…for
Western banks, which wanted to safeguard their credits, money was
there, but not for the minimal food subventions, which should save human
beings from dying of starvation.“
(„Die Chancen der Globalisierung“, Joseph Stiglitz, Pantheon publishing house, p. 39)
At
Somalia, a country, 50% of whose population have worked as livestock
breeders (p. 97, „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the New World
Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky), since the beginning of the
1980ies, because of IMF conditions, the currency has been devaluated
(resulting in rising costs of fuel and fertilizer, p. 96) , the grain
market been deregulated (p. 96), the veterinary services been privatized
(p. 96), the emergency supplys of animal fodder been abolished (p. 96),
the water been privatized (p. 97), and the fight against erosion been
neglected (p. 97). In sum, the public agricultural expenditures have
been reduced by 85% (p. 97) in comparison to the middle of the 1970ies.
The collapse of the Somalian agriculture also is shown by the fact, that
at the beginning of the 1980ies, the sale of food aid had already
become the main source of revenue for the Somalian government (p. 97).
At
Ruanda, the 1990 structural adjustment program of the IMF served for
starvation. In the country, which had already been focused on coffee
cultivation, the national fund for the securing against falling coffee
prices has been abolished together with all other public agricultural
funds. Added to this were the known effects of currency devaluation and
trade liberalization on the domestic agriculture (p. 106 + 107, „The
Globaliziation of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel
Chossudovsky). Finally at 1992, even the coffee price for the farmers of
Ruanda has been legally limited because of a condition of the World
Bank (p. 108). Amidst the Ruandan civil war, the IMF enforced a further
currency devaluation even though the country already had to export a
part of its food because of the one-sided focus on coffee cultivation
(p. 108). The trade liberalization of the grain markets enforced by IMF
and World Bank have had the effect, that the food aid has been
implemented in a way, which has further ruined the domestic agricultural
production (p. 109). According to the International Committee of the
Red Cross, over 1 million people have been starving at Ruanda at 1993
(p. 122, foot note 14). Ruanda has, even though the dominant coffee
cultivation, been self- sufficient regarding food, until it has allowed
in 1990, because of an IMF credit condition, the dumping of highly
subventioned US and EU food surpluses (p. 140).
At Mozambique, IMF
and World Bank have supported with their credit conditions big
agricultural projects, for which the state has obliged itself, to
replace to expel family farmers for the benefit of big firms, which are
focused on export (p. 126-131, „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the
New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky), and which do
contribute nothing to the nutrition of the Mozambiquans.
Ethiopia
produces enough for the covering of 90% of the existential needs of its
inhabitants. According to the world food organization FAO, from 1999 to
2000, the province Amhara reached 20% respectively 500.000 t grain
surplus, and the province Oromiya 600.000 t grain surplus. At the same
time, at Amhara were 2,8 million people starving, and at Oromiya 1,6
million people, a clear example, how the one-sided orientation on
export, which has been imposed by IMF and World Bank, in combination
with the destruction of the food cultivation for the domestic market
creates starvation (p. 137+138, „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the
New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky), particularly sind half
of the export revenue went into the debt servicing (p. 139). The hunger
appears at Ethiopia with a regionally stongly varying distribution, as a
result from the prohibition of the financial redistribution between the
provinces and the federal level, which had been imposed by the IMF (p.
139), with the result, that the starvation areas did not get any
financial aid against the hunger from the federal level or from the
other regions any more. Before the starvation at Ethiopia, the World
Bank imposed removal of the price limits for fuel and fertilizer (p.
139) and the also World Bank credit condition imposed removal of all
Ethiopian agricultural subventions had taken place. The
agricultural
trade has been liberalized at the command of the IMF (p. 139). Ethiopia
has been forced, for the ruin of its family farmers food production by
means of food aid with genetically manipulated grain, to allow the
access of seeds corporations on the public seeds reserves, and been
forced to cancel the family farmers’ seeds network (p. 142+143).
The
deregulation of the grain market at Kenya, imposed by IMF and World
Bank, as well as the also commanded prohibition of any distribution of
food by the state and prohibition of even any public regulation of the
food distribution have led in 1991 and 1992 to the starvation of nearly 2
million people at Kenya’s dryer provinces (p. 140).
At Zimbabwe and Malawi, the IMF enforced the change from food cultivation to tobacco cultivation.
At
1992, the maize harvest declined at Zimbabwe by 90 % and at Malawi by
40%. 1992 was a drought year in the Southern Africa. The tobacco export
revenues went into the debt servicing instead of the fight against
starvation (p. 100, „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the New World
Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky).
For Niger, officially one of
the poorest countries of the world, the IMF has, in 2004, prohibited the
creation of food reserves. Amidst the famine at Niger, in which 3,6
million people have stood at the abyss, the IMF has even prohibited any
free distribution of millet, in the name of preventing market
distortions. And not only such distributions, which could have cost the
state Niger money and could have reduced its debt servicing, but even
the distribution of millet by the United Nations and by NGOs
(Germanwatch interview with Prof. Dr. Jean Ziegler of the year 2005)
www.germanwatch.org/zeitung/2005-4-ziegler.htm
Niger
is no individual case. Also Malawi and Ethiopia have been forced by the
IMF to sell the public food reserves for a higher debt servicing,
Ethiopia just before the famine of 1984/1985.
On Ethiopia, see p. 141
of the book „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the New World Order“ by
Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky and the Global Research article at the
link: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=366
On Malawi, see the taz article „Der Hunger geht, die Armut bleibt“
www.taz.de/1/politik/afrika/artikel/1/der-hunger-geht-die-armut-bleibt/
At
India in 1991, the removal of food and fertilizer subventions commanded
by the IMF served together with the also commanded currency devaluation
for the increase of the rice price by 50% (p. 150+153, „The
Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel
Chossudovsky, published 2003). At India, family farmers and farm workers
are together 400 million people (p. 151). The removal of the fertilizer
subvention, which had been explicitely demanded by the IMF (p. 151),
led in 1991 to the increase of the fertilizer price by 40% and ruined
many small agricultural enterprizes. The formal removal of the legal
limit to landownership, imposed by IMF and World Bank (p. 154), has been
a decisive incentive for the expulsion of familiy farmers by big
landowners, who prefer producing for export than in comparison to
producing food for the own population. As a result of the removal of the
wages indexation, also enforced by IMF and World Bank, hundreds of
millions of Indian people (among them particularly agricultural workers
and smallholders) had to live on (convertedly) 50,- US cent per day
while at the same time costs of living rising towards the world market,
including a 50% increase of the rice price. Prof. Dr. Chossudovsky
speaks , therefore, of „economic genocide“ (p. 154) by IMF and World
Bank at India. The harsh accusation by Prof. Dr. Chossudovsky regarding
India may cause wondering, because many other countries have got even
more brutal and even more intentious conditions against their food
supply, it is, however, justified, because at no other country of the
world are so many starving people, and because IMF and World Bank and
not wars, caste system, religious intolerance, gene technology or
anything else have the main guilt for that.
At Bangla Desh, the IMF
enforced, at the beginning of the 1980ies, the removal of the
agricultural subven- tions, enforced the trade liberalization, and the
deregulation of the grain market (p. 161, „The Globalization of Poverty
and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky). For the
destruction of the food supply by family farmers, finally the program
„food for work“ has been used, where village inhabitants had to work
solely for food. This been made possible by the trade liberalization
enforced by the IMF. The economical ruin forced many farmers to a new
start at areas, which were particularly endangered by floods. This is
the explanation for 140.000 people killed by the flood at 1991 (p. 165)
and 10 millionen homeless people because of the flood. Just in 1991, the
IMF enforced a currency devaluation, which resulted in the increase of
the rice price by 50%, and which tightened the flood-induced famine
decisively. Far distributed undernourishment and a lack of vitamin A
have already existed at Bangla Desh before the flood, and typical IMF
conditions have a crucial share in the causes of this.
At
Vietnam, farmers have been encouraged by the World Bank, to cultivate
for export instead of food for the own population (p. 177 Chossudovsky).
Because of the decline of the world market prices for the respective
export commodities, Vietnam got into the situation, to subvention food
exports, while the farmers of the country were starving as a result of
the IMF typical curency devaluation including the increase of the prices
for fuel and fertilizer connected to it. In 1994, a famine has taken
place with 50.000 affected people, while in the same year, because of
the collapse of public rice trade companies, two million tons of
Vietnamese rice remained unsold (p. 178). In the years 1987 to 1990, 25%
of the adults and 50% of the children at Vietnam were undernourished
(p. 179). The enforced orientation to export has also led to the
expulsion of family farmers by big landowners (p. 182).
The film
„Raubzug des IWF in Argentinien“ of Kanal B of the year 2002 shows
clearly the behaviour of the IMF at Argentina. The country has, until
the beginning of the military dictatorship in the 1970ies, been one of
the countries with the highest standard of living at Latin America and
with a broad middle class. Argentina has received its first IMF loan
already one week after the assumption of the military dictatorship in
1976. At the end of the dictatorship, the country had 30,- billon $
debts, half of which have been publid bailouts of private debts. From
1983 to 1989 always more public expenditures, because of the pressure by
the IMF, have been reduced, from 1989 to 1992 all public enterprizes
have been privatized. Since the Menem government, the cuts also in the
social area became so strong, that the starvation begun, years after the
end of the dictator- ship. According to the journalist Sebastian Hacher
(Indymedia), in the year 2002 at Argentina, 100 children per day died
of starvation; this means 36.500,- children died of starvation per year
at that time at Argentina, a high number especially in comparison to a
total number of 30.000,- people during murdered by the Argentinian
military dictatorship. And the adult Argentinians, who have died of
starvation because of the IMF, are not counted yet in this number. At
demonstrator at the demonstration of the jobless people at the
11.03.2002 estimated the number of starving people at that time alone
for the area Buenos Aires to circa 4,- million people.
In order to
keep the control at Brazil even though the mass layoffs in the public
sector and the removal of the public pension insurance in 1994 after the
constitutional change, which had been enforced by the IMF for these
purposes (p. 195 ff. „The Globalization of Poverty and the New World
Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky), a part of the reduction of the
expenditures has been used for food aid to the inhabitants of slums. In
rural areas, there are, in addition to that, model projects, where
landless people are gives exhausted agricultural areas (or can buy them
with the help of World Bank loans), which seem not profitable enough for
the big landowners. And the areas are given to the landless people,
which are not in the land register, but are the property of Indigenous
people, whereas in 1994 the constitutionally guaranteed property rights
of the Indigenous people had been streaked according to the command of
the IMF. Instead of paying for food for all, the IMF let it happen, that
instead the state paid to big landowners for the employment of land
workers, and that food aid supplies were also used for the targeted
destructed of the food cultivation of family farmers (p. 195 and
201-202, „The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof.
Dr. Michel Chossudovsky).
The Brazilian “Fome Zero” (null hunger)
program of President Lula da Silva, which wanted to free a seven digit
number of Brazilians from starvation, but which has been realized in an
only significantly reduced form, because the IMF has not granted a debt
moratorium, which had been requested for the benefit of Brazil
(Germanwatch interview with Prof. Dr. Jean Ziegler of the year 2005).
www.germanwatch.org/zeitung/2005-4-ziegler.htm
At Peru, 83% of the
inhabitants are undernourished because of the conditions (p. 31, „The
Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel
Chossudovsky). The country has been exposed several times to shocking
IMF conditions. From 1980 – 1983, the undernourishment of children has
risen dramati- cally, and from 1975 to 1985, the food consumption of the
total population has shrinked by 25% (p. 209). The decline of the real
wages from 1980 to 1985 has been at 45% (p. 209). Even significantly
more drastically directed against the food supply have been the IMF
conditions at August 1990, when the rapid combination of artifical
currency devalution, limitation of the wages, and letting loose of the
prices, resulted in the increase of the prices, in comparison to the
wages, within one month, for fuel to the 31-fold, for bread to the
12-fold, and for food in the average by 446 %. The IMF enforced, in the
name of the fight against the hyperinflation of August 1990, layoffs in
the public sector, cuts social in the social system, and the reduction
of wages (p.216). Since the hyperinflation with all its effects like the
increase in price of fertilizer etc., has not been enough for the
destruction of the family farming at Peru, the IMF simply enforced its
prohibiton by means of a legal minimum size for a farm of at least 10
ha; and only with at least this minimum size, agri- cultural loans have
been available (p. 221).
At
Bolivia, the trade liberalization, enforced by IMF, together with aid
shipments, served for a decline of the production costs between 1985 and
1988 by 25,9 % (p. 232, „The Globalization of Poverty and the New World
Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky).
At Russia, the combination
of artifical currency devaluation and of releasing the prices, both
imposed by the IMF, served at 1992 for to a hundredfold increase of the
prices, while, in the name of the fight against inflation, only a
tenfold increase of the wages has been tolerated. The price of bread has
risen operproportio- nally from between 17 and 18 kopeks to 20 rubles
(p. 240, „The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof.
Dr. Michel Chossudovsky). The food supply sank below the level it had
during World War II (p. 241). In 1993, the IMF, in addition to that,
effected by the deregulation of a big Russian bread fabric, a further
between tripling and quadrupling of the bread price (p. 249).
The
family farmer food cultivation at Albania has been pushed back by a
combination of trade liberalization, of food aid from subventioned grain
surpluses, from currency devaluation (resulting in price increase of
fertilizer and fuel, shrinking of the real wages etc.), and the
destruction of the domestic seeds production (in order to make
dependened on more expensive seeds).
(„The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky)
That
these IMF conditions at the cost of the starving cannot be rare single
cases, is shown by the official report of the 07.02.2001 (file number
E/CN.4/2001/53) by Prof. Dr. Jean Ziegler, the then UN Special
Rapporteur for the human right to food, according to which (see no.. 69c
of the report) the credit conditions of IMF and World Bank are
world-wide the second-biggest cause for the starvation in the world,
even more than biotechnology in agriculture and than wars.
www.righttofood.org/new/PDF/ECN4200153.pdf
In
1990, world-wide 822 million people, in 2007 ca. 923 million people,
and in 2008 ca. 963 million people have starved. At the 19.06.2009,
already about a billion people were starving.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welthunger
www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/icode/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8109698.stm
At
2004, enough food has been produced for 12 billion people (interview
with Prof. Jean Ziegler in the edition 4/2005 of the Germanwatch
newspaper). According to the then actual world food report, neverthe-
less, in 2004, more than 100.000 people per day were starving of
starvation or of the immediate effects of starvation; in the average of
the year 2004, each 5 seconds a child below the age of 10 died of
starvation. www.germanwatch.org/zeitung/2005-4-ziegler.htm
V.2 IMF conditions one of the main reasons for the rise of tuberculosis und further diseases
According
to an article of Dr. F. William Engdahl, who is a member of the
globalization research network „Global Research“, of the 27.11.2009, are
among the most recent IMF conditions towards the Ukraine drastical cuts
in the health sector, among them the closure of hospitals and layoffs
in the health sector. The behaviour of the IMF towards the Ukraine is a
proof, that the IMF even after the start of the economic crisis still
acts in the same way, hostile against human rights. The Ukraine has been
affected particularly hard by the economic crisis, by a speculative
bubble and by a deep recession.
In this context, Dr. Engdahl reports
on a study of the Cambridge University of the year 2008, which has
statistically proven by 21 middle and eastern European countries, that
states, which have been under IMF conditions, have had a significantly
higher tuberculosis rate than states without IMF conditions.
The publication date 22.07.2008 of the study shows, that it has depicted a time before the current economic crisis.
www.prisonplanet.com/are-ukraine-black-death-cases-result-of-imf-loans.html
www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050143
According to Dr. Engdahl, the IMF is, in view of the drastical cuts in the health sector, als called „infant mortality fund“.
Dr.
Engdahl explains, that particularly a significant increase of the
tuberculosis deaths indicates a fast worsening medical supply, because
tuberculosis is a disease with a fast course.
The Canadian economist
Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, a colleague of Dr. Engdahl in the
globalization research network Global Resarch, names on p. 62 and 63 of
his work „The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order“ the
dramatical decline of health-related control and prevention activities
because of austerity conditions by IMF and World Bank as the reason of
the comeback of cholera, yellow feaver, and malaria to the south of the
Sahara, and the spread of malaria and dengue fever at Latin America, as
well as the decline of the hygiene and of the public health institutions
because of austerity conditions by IMF and World Bank as reasons for
the comeback in 1994 of bubonic plague at India.
Prof. Dr.
Chossudovsky’s work „The Globalization of Poverty and the New World
Order“ contains further number on the destruction of the health system
by IMF conditions:
-The health expenditures at Somalia have been reduced by 78% between the 1970ies and 1989 because of IMF conditions (p. 97).
-The
malaria rate at Ruanda has risen in 1991 under IMF conditions by 21%
(p. 108). At Ruanda, the World Bank enforced moderating fees of the
patients and mass layoffs in the health sector (p. 111).
-At Bangla
Desh, in 1992 have been 1,50 $ per inhabitant and year have been spent
for health, 25,- cent of it for medicaments. The creditors enforced
further cuts in 1992 and 1993.
-On Vietnam have been imposed the
payment for particular health services by the patients and the release
of the prices of the medicaments (p. 185). As a result, the
exependitures for medicaments have been reduced by 89% between 1980 and
1989, and 98,5% of the Vietnamese pharma industry has been destroyed.
Ten thouands of health workers incl. doctors have got unemployed.
Hospitals have been closed, because too few of the patients were able to
pay on their own for the health services. In order to prevent the
reconstruction of the health sector, the finances of the medical
faculties have been massively cut (p. 186). According to the WHO, the
number of malaria deaths threefolded, and already defeated diseases,
such as tuberculosis, reappeared at Vietnam (p. 186).
-At Brazil, the health expenditures have been reduced by 50% in 1993 (p. 197).
-At
Peru, the the austerity measures in the health sector including the
closure of hospitals, the hyperinflation, the undernourishment, and the
lack of funds for the cooking of water, favoured since August 1990 the
spread of cholera (in 1991 with more than 200.000 ill people and over
2.000 deaths within 6 months) and the comeback of, i. a., malaria and
dengue fever (p. 216).
-At Albania (p. 291), the enforced payments of
the patients themselves and the mass layoffs in the health sector
supported the outbreak of cholera (1995) and the polio epidemic (1996).
The
behaviour of the IMF before the economic crisis and with the elevation
of such inhumane condition to a rank of EU secondary law, gives a light
taste on, how much the IMF or the Troika respectively the EU Commission
would rage after the carde blanche enabling, which is wanted by art. 136
par. 3 TFEU – or how private creditors would rage in the framework of
the Vienna initiative and of the state insolvency procedure of the ESM
(part V.4 of this letter), which would also obligate the private
creditors to impose on the debtor states conditions with a strictness
according to the „practice“ of the IMF.
V.3 proof of the inhumanity of the „practice“ of the IMF at the example of the UNICEF study „Adjustment with a Human Face“
The
UNICEF study „Adjustment with a Human Face“ (1987) depicts the effects
of credit conditions of the IMF on poverty and need and develops
proposals for more humane austerity measures.
The page numbers quoted
refer to the German edition. As far as in this part of this text
English quotations are in quotation signs, this is the non-authorized
(as wordly as possible) translation from German into English by my
husband (Volker Reusing, same address as Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing),
which possibly is not exactly identical to the English original, because
we have only the German version of the study.
UNICEF
mentions in „Adjustment with a Human Face“ „reckless cuts of the state
expenditures for health, which are often part of an adjustment program“,
and which „lead to a worsening of the state of health of the
population“ (p. 87). UNICEF mentions as example the „outbreak of deadly
infectious diseases among children“ at the Brazilian province Sao Paulo
because of the delayed introduction of a vaccination program against
measels (p. 87+95); it seems to be the same measels epidemic, which also
Prof. Dr. Jean Ziegler mentions in his work „Imperium der Schande“
(Bertelsmann publishing house). At Ghana, according to UNICEF, cutting
the expenditures for medical basical supply has led to the increase of
frequency, distribution, and deaths by infectious diseases (p. 87).
In
1984, IMF adjustment programs in the Brazilian province Sao Paulo led
to a steep rise of the infant mortality (p. 95). This seems to be
related to food, for according to UNICEF, the inflation from 1981 to
1983 at Brazil has been 400 %, but higher for food, because the IMF
conditions have forced the country, to push back the cultivation for the
favour of grain and sugar cane for export (p. 94).
„A radical
reduction of the food subventions in favour of investment activities as a
part of a new adjustment package have led in Sri Lanka“, according to
UNICEF, „to an increase of undernourishment of third degree among the
children of the poorest“ (p. 87).
UNICEF, in addition to that, quotes
a study, according tho whom the child mortality at Chile has
temporarily risen in 1983 by 10% because of the temporary cancellation
of a public child food program, and which has decreased again after the
reenactment of the program in 1984 (p. 87+88+97). According to another
study, the undernourishment of the children of Chile at school age has
risen from 1980 to 1983 from 4,6 % to 15,8 % , and from 1981 to 1984
also the frequency of typhus and hepatitis (p. 97). UNICEF, however,
also applaudes to Chile for its free school meals, for its food programs
for children until the age of 6 years, and for support programs for
pregnant women and children up to the age of 8 years, who live in
extreme poverty (p. 97). This means, that in other countries with IMF
conditions, respective programs to limit the starvation of children have
not been or been in a lesser amount (than in the Chile of Pinochet)
available.
At Gambia, according to UNICEF, the undernourishment of
children has risen in 1985 as a result of increased food prices
(resulting from IMF conditions) without social mitigating measures (p.
88).
Ghana received IMF loans and structural adjustment conditions in
1983. UNICEF looks at the time form 1980 to 1985, so that only a part
of the social effects are to be attributed to the IMF. Because of the
collapse of the cacao prices, the per-capita income has already fallen
by a third from 1974 to 1982. At 1982 (before the IMF), the whole
available food at Ghana reached only 68% of the need of calories (p.
98). The child mortality has risen from 10% (1980) to 11% (1983) and 12%
(1984). Between 1979 and 1984, the health expenditures per capita at
Ghana have sunk by 80% (p. 98). There has been a mass exodus of
qualified personnel of the social sectors. UNICEF applauds to the IMF
only for the reduction of the inflation, which had been three-digit
before, but its programs were primarily orientatied on the economical
situation. The measures, which UNICEF recommended for Ghana (p. 99
+100), show, that the health system and the own food production have had
virtually to be rebuild again. UNICEF demanded „food for work“ programs
and speaks about a „big gap in the food supply“ (p. 100).
Jamaica
received loans by the IMF at 1980 and at 1984, the one in 1984 with
significantly tougher conditions. UNICEF has observed the years 1978 to
1985 (p. 101). While before 1984, a five person household could cover
its nutrition with 75% of its income, at 1984 only 50% of the needed
food could be bought from that income. And from October 1984 to March
1986, the price of the needed food basket has risen by 45 %. The prices
of grain, flour, maize flour, and rice have risen even stronger. Public
aid programs have reached only a part of the undernourished (p. 102).
From 1981 to 1986, the health expenditures at Jamaica have been reduced
by 33 %; fees have been introduced for the health services (p. 102). The
percen- tage of children with visible signs of undernourishment has
risen from 38% (1978) to 41% (1985). From 1978 to 1985, the number of
gravely undernourished children admitted to hospital doubled, the number
with diseases of stomach and bore tripled, whereas the strongest
increase has taken place from 1983 to 1985.
Peru has been regarded by UNICEF for the years 1977 to 1985. The country received from 1977 to 1978 and
from 1982 to 1984 IMF loans.
Among
the conditions have been the removal of any food subventions (p. 103 +
104). The average food supply per capita has fallen by 26% (p. 104). The
tuberculosis rate has risen (an interesting parallel to the IMF induced
rise of tuberculosis in the former eastern block countries during the
1990ies, part V.2 of this letter).
The Philippines received an IMF
loan at 1984. A result was, that the tax financed subsidies for the
elementary health supply has been reduced to a fifth of the amount to
the respective subsidies to hospitals of the upper class. At 1985, the
real wages have been at a fourth of the poverty line (estimated by the
World Bank) of a six person household, in rural areas at only 22% (p.
106). The health expenditures have fallen from 1979 to 1984 by a third
(p. 103). The number of underweight children under 5 years has grown
from 17 % (1982) to 22 % (1985).
The UNICEF study emphasizes the
„urgency of new solutions“, because the „current approach“ tends to
cause poverty, and if one regards „the direct negative effects of some
of the macroeconomic measures for the health and the nutrition of the
poorest and particularly of the children“. According to UNICEF, the
ignorance of the „needs of the poor“ is „not only ethically
reprehensible, but also contraproduktive“ (p. 89).
V.4 „Vienna initiative“ older than anticipated and systematical abuse of power of the IMF at the favour of specific big banks
The
Grenadian economist Davison Budhoo, who had served, i. a., as „resident
representative“ of the IMF for Guayana, cancelled his job at the IMF at
the 18.05.1988 with an open letter, which has been published in the
form of a book by New Horizons Press. As a complete version is available
to me only the German translation, published by the
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in 1991 „Genug ist genug“. You find a part of the
English text in the internet at
www.naomiklein.org/files/resources/pdfs/budhoo.pdf
As
far as in this part of this text English quotations are in quotation
signs, this is the non-authorized (as wordly as possible) translation
from German into English by my husband (Volker Reusing, same address as
Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing), which possibly is not exactly identical to
the English original, because we have only the complete German version.
In
1986 and 1987, the IMF has already given the possibility to particular
private banks, as a reward for their willingness to give loans of 16
billion $, to impose on states „their own macroeconomic conditionality“
(p. 130), „whose logical consequence has been the annihilation of even
more third world children, after already because of our judgement and
that of the World Bank, which we ourselves had written, millions had
been killed or chosen for death.“
For significantly smaller loans
than those of the IMF itself, the IMF enabled private banks without any
legal basis, to add to the conditions created by the IMF their own
particular-interest-like and in no way less human-rights-ignoring
conditions, which then have also been put through by the IMF.
Already
in the time from 1983 to 1986 there have been, according to Budhoo, 27
cases, in which the IMF has included particular private banks, and in
only one case these banks have been willing, to accept the credit
conditions, which had already been negotiated between the IMF and the
respective state, in the other 26 cases they insisted on adding their
own political conditions (p. 131+132). So the IMF granted to banks
already from 1983 to 1986 in at least 27 cases the power to reject
„commitments concluded between the IMF and its member states in the
third world, if these commitments, from the point of view of these
banks, did not protect their own interests in a way, like they should be
protected“ (p. 132). Unfortunately, Budhoo does not say, if for this
surprisingly high number of 27 states, which the IMF has subjugated also
under completely unlegitimated banks, these bank had at all (as the 16
billion $ in 1986 and 1987) to give from themselves new loans to the
respective countries . This way, banks could straightly put through
conditions, they could „care after their own number one“ (p. 132). For
the accumulation of interests of private banks in view of the IMF, as a
result, i. a. the International Institute of Finance and the Japan
Centre for International Finance have been founded (p. 132). The IMF
even sends, by order of banks, within the scope of the „enhanced
surveillance“ commitment, delegations to the debtor countries in the
South (p. 132).
So
it is depicted, that already the obligation to a strictness according
to the „practice“ of the IMF means the informal contribution by the
private creditors of conditions for the Troika or the EU Commission
within the mechanisms connected to art. 136 par. 3 TFEU.
The term
„Vienna initiative“ for the enforcement of political conditions, which
have been formulated by big private banks, has come into existence not
before the beginning of this century, when the IMF has done this for
Austrian banks against Eastern European states.
V.5 strictness of the „practice“ of the IMF at the service of big banks
The
book „Die Chancen der Globalisierung“ (Pantheon publishing house) by
Joseph Stiglitz, a former chief economist and former vice-chairman of
the World Bank, exposes that also the IMF has served more for banks in
their quality as creditors of the states, than for its official task,
for which the IMF had been created, namely to help states, which are
experiencing a lack of liquidity, with loans.
As far as in this part
of this text English quotations are in quotation signs, this is the
non-authorized (as wordly as possible) translation from German into
English by my husband (Volker Reusing, same address as Sarah Luzia
Hassel-Reusing), which possibly is not exactly identical to the English
original, because we have only the complete German version.
At page 272, he says:
„At
crises, the IMF granted to debtor countries, which were unable to pay,
loans within the frame of a so- called bail-out – but the money did, in
the end, not benefit the country, but the Western creditor banks, whose
claims have been covered with it. At Eastern Asia as well as at Latin
America, these supportive loans have served the purpose to pay foreign
creditors, who were released of the necessity to carry the costs of the
loss of their claims from the loans the had given carelessly. In some
cases, governments have eben bailed out private debts and have this way,
in fact, socialized private risks. They have helped the creditors out
of their unconfortable situation, but the money of the IMF has not been a
gigt, but only a further credit- and the developing country had to pay
for it. In fact, the tax payers of the poor country paid for the
unreliable policy of the rich countries regarding giving credits.“
The parallel to Greece and to the recapitalization of banks from tax payer money within the scope of EFSF and ESM is obvious.
On page 58, Stiglitz says in a chapter on the Asia crisis:
„Critiques
of the IMF claim, that its conditions serve, in principle, not the aim
to protect countries against recession, but to protect the interests of
its creditors. Behind this stands the purpose, to refill the foreign
exchange reserves as soon as possible, in order to be able to fulfill
the claims of the creditors.“
Stiglitz shows the extent of the
one-sided-ness of the IMF for the benefit of the creditors at the
example of Ethiopia, where the IMF has, for the question, whether the
budget was balanced, not counted the foreign aid as revenue (p. 66). As a
result, the Ethiopian government did not dare to use the foreign aid
for the purposes it had been given for, but added it to the country’s
foreign exchange reserves, thus alienating these aids from their
purpose, so that the possibility was left open, to use these funds later
for the payment to the creditors of the country.
At page 279,
Stiglitz shows at the example of Argentina, that this country had to
choose in its acute debt crisis, if it took new IMF loans, just in order
to pay back old IMF loans. The money would just have been transferred
from one IMF banking account to another IMF banking account.Argentina,
however, would have got additional condition for this by the IMF, which
would have further aggravated the recession. Argentina at that time
really managed to get a partly debt cut by the IMF, and to reject any
new IMF conditions, in turn for paying back the rest of the debts, the
country had to the IMF. The IMF had already forced Argentina before to
privatize its public pension insurance and to increase the prices for
water and electricity (p. 278). Argentina has made the experience, that
the IMF intentiously delayed the state bankruptcy of the country, in
order to be able to put through before as much conditions as possible
(p. 281):
„When Argentina admitted to a particular condition, the IMF
posed new conditions, in order to prolong the agony of Argentina, and
to make the default of the debt servicing as expensive as possible.“
Stiglitz shows the one-sided-ness of the IMF also on p. 279-280:
„A
former IMF employee explained, that his institution just represents the
interests of the creditors (of whom the IMF has been the biggest), and
these were oriented to create fear of a state bankruptcy. The IMF
wanted, that every sovereign country, which considers declaring its
default, thinks for a long time and intensively, before it takes this
step. No court can force a sovereign country to fulfill its debt
service; normally, there are no or only few assets, which can be
confiscated (in contrast to private insolvencies, where the creditors
can liquidate an enterprize or objects given to them as securities).
Only fear has driven them to the debt service; without fear, loans would
not be payed off, the bond market for the debts of states would simply
dry out.“
The fear of getting separated from the capital market is,
according to Stiglitz, shown particularly drastically at Moldova, where
3⁄4 of the state budget go into the debt servicing (p. 281).
At
Botswana, the IMF put through the increase of the interest rate in the
private economy to 60%. See German translation of an interview of
Emperor’s Clothes with Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky:
http://notgroschen.blogspot.com/2012/01/internationaler-wahrungsfonds-iwf-und.html
The
most extreme example of one-sided-ness of the IMF on the side of the
creditors, happened in 1992 at Brazil, where the IMF insisted, that the
government first had to reach an agreement with the big private
creditors, before an IMF loan came into consideration – that’s what via
art. 12 ESM Treaty (part V.4 of this letter) is going to be entrenched
for the first time in the primary law of an international organization.
That had the result at Brazil, that the government consented to an
increase of the interest rate towards its biggest private creditors from
30% to 50% (p. 192 and foot note 2, „The Globalization of Poverty and
the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky).
In 1999, the
IMF enforced, in connection to a „preventive“ credit, the increase of
the Brazilian base rate to 39%, what led to interest rates for the
Brazilian private economy between 50% and 90% and for private credits
between 150% and 250%. And Brazil has been ordered by the IMF, to use
the currency reserves of its central bank to defend the Brazilian
currency against speculators, who tried next after the Asia crisis, to
speculate down the Brazilian currency. This way, the reserves of the
central bank shrinked from July 1998 to January 1999 from 75,- billion $
to 27,- billion $ (p. 349+350, „The Globalization of Poverty and the
New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky).
Prof. Stiglitz
mentions Russia as a positive example, which has got again access to
loans on the financial market only 2 years after its default, which the
country has managed in 1998 in a sovereignty respecting way (p. 282),
because financial markets evaluate future risks and less the behaviour
to the creditors in the past. For this purpose, it is important, that
the debt reduction is high enough, to give new creditors confidence in
the ability of the country to pay off future debts.
In the Asia
crisis, the IMF has received direct counselling by some banke regarding
the credit conditions on the states, which the IMF gave loans at that
time (p. 325, „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the New World Order“,
Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky“). Among them were, according to Prof. Dr.
Chossudovsky, i. a., Chase, Bank America, City Group, J.P. Morgan,
Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Salomon Smith
Barney, independently from the question, which of these banks might have
contributed to the Asia crisis by means of currency speculations.
In
1998, the IMF forced several Asian countries, among them Indonesia, to
loosen their restrictions on caprial movements including making easier
the speculation with currencies. And at the same time, the IMF forced
them to use large amounts of their national currency reserves for the
purchase of their own currency with the aim to prevent the devaluating
speculation of the domestic currency, while at least the waste of the
currency reserves for the support of the currency exchange rate had been
recommended to the IMF before by the international private bank
association IIF (p. 325+326, „The Globaliziation of Poverty and the New
World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky“).
In 1998, there has
even been an initiative of some world’s biggest private banks, in order
to give their influencing and their insider businesses with the IMF a
legal appearance. In a „Private Sector Advisory Council“, which was
going to be filled with private banks, they want to surveil the
correctness of the work of the IMF, and they would have harvested at
that opportunity insider knowledge to an unprecedented extent (p. 326,
„The Globaliziation of Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr.
Michel Chossudovsky“).
At
South Korea, the issuing bank has been restructured under direct
control by IMF and Wall Street banks (p. 328, „The Globaliziation of
Poverty and the New World Order“, Prof. Dr. Michel Chossudovsky“).
VI. further considerations regarding the subjective part
VI.1 mögliche Spuren anhand der Entstehungsgeschichte des Art. 136 Abs. 3 AEUV
The
history of the creating of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU is of crucial relevance
not only objectively for the proof of the systematical nature and of
the large scope, but also for the subjective part for the investigation
of the question, which persons are responsible for the attempt to
orientate the EU law and the states of the eurozone to such an extent to
the safeguarding of banks, while pretendingly referring to an alleged
„safeguarding of the euro“, and to even obligate that to a strictness
according to the „practice“ of the IMF.
The „Eurogroup“ is a body, in
which the economic and financial ministers of those EU member states,
whose currency is the euro, can discuss confidentially with exclusion of
the public questions, on which they decide later in the EU Council of
Ministers. Sometimes, the results of the „Eurogroup“ are published, as
it has been after the session of the 28.11.2010. According to the
explanation of the „Eurogroup“ of the 28.11.2010, Herman van Rompuy
(President of the European Council) should present the draft of art. 136
par. 3 TFEU at the following summit of the European Council (EU body of
the Prime Ministers of the EU member states). As a result, the Prime
Ministers concluded at the summit of the European Council at the
16./17.12.2010, to initiate art. 136 par. 3 TFEU. It seems, that Herman
van Rompuy has earlier and better informed than most or even than all of
the Prime Ministers and financial ministers of the countries of the
eurozone, who has drafted art. 136 par. 3 TFEU for which objectives.
link to the declaration of the Eurogroup of the 28.11.2010
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/118051.pdf
link to the conclusions of the summit 16./17.12.2010 of the European Council and draft + considerations of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/118578.pdf
EU
regional commissioner Johannes Hahn had commissioned the Austrian
economic research institute WIFO with a study, which has been published
by the WIFO institute in May 2010 under the name „Funktionsfähigkeit und
Stabilität des Euro-Raumes“.
http://karl.aiginger.wifo.ac.at/fileadmin/files_aiginger/publications/2010/eurostabilitaet.pdf
The
study says on art. 136 par. 3 TFEU (these sentences authorized
translated from German into English by the husband of Sarah Luzia
Hassel-Reusing):
„So the Commission is working on proposals for the
gradual realization of a kind of ‘economic government’, by which the
economic policy of the community can be better coordinated. The basis
for this will deliver the new prescriptions of art. 136 TFEU. There,
measures are planned for the members of the eurozone, in order to
‘strengthen the coordination and the surveillance of their budgetary
discipline’. This shall allow crisis interventions, but they should be
as unattractive as possible.“
The WIFO expert opinion proves, that
art. 136 par. 3 TFEU has already been discussed before May 2010 as the
legal basis in EU primary law for the European financing mechanism
(Greece support, EFSM, EFSF, and ESM) and for the enabling of the EU
Commission as the EU economic government (via tightened Stability and
Growth Pact, Imbalance Procedure, and Budgetary Surveillance), and that
there even had already been at that time concrete deliberations
regarding the wording for art. 136 par. 3 TFEU. The same WIFO expert
opinion also includes the proposals, most of which have been used by the
EU Commission for the drafts in September 2010 of the EU regulations
for the tightening of the Stability and Growth Pact and for the intro-
duction of the Imbalance Procedure.
The
EU regional commissioner as well as the WIFO expert seem to be
important witnesses of the history of the creating of art. 136 par. 3
TFEU. Also of significant importance seems to be, when the expert
opinion has been commissioned. In addition to that, significant further
findings on this might be delivered by inter- viewing the the President
of the EU Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.
VI.2 responsibility for the systematical extent of the strictness
The
suspected objective part regarding art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute
refers to the fact, that the interven- tions of the conditions into
nutrition and into health are too deep, have lost any human bounds.
So
it is crucial to investigate, who is responsible for the fact, that the
economic and financial ministers (Ecofin) in the EU Council of
Ministers have, at the 10.05.2010, demanded a strictness as in the
„practice“ of the IMF, whereas most of them probably have not been aware
of the scope of this statement (part III.2 of this letter).
Apart
from that, the investigation of the question is crucial, who is
responsible for that in no. 49 of the report of the „Task Force“ (part
III.2 of this letter) of the 21.10.2010 even „very“ strict conditions
are demanded, and the clarification, how „very strict“ has been meant at
that time regarding areas like food and health, which are relevant for
art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute.
VI.3 concrete procedure of the creation of the conditions to Greece
Greece
has received financial assistance for paying its existing creditors
since 2010 via the „Greek support“ and after that via the EFSF. The
conditions, which have led to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Greek
health sector, come, as explained in part III.1 of this letter, from
February 2012, and they have been made within the frame of the EFSF.
Like also in the other mechanisms of the European financing mechanism,
the draft of the conditions has been introduced in the frame of the
„Troika“ by the EU Commission, supported by the IMF and the ECB. So it
makes sense, to interview not only IMF and EU Commission, which are
involved anyway in this procedure because of the charges against Mrs.
Lagarde and Mr. Barroso, but also the responsible representatives of the
ECB.
Since, as shown in part III.5, already at 2009 many Greeks have
lived below the poverty line, one can presume, that the starvation at
Greece has not only been aggravated by the EFSF, but also by the „Greek
support“ Regarding the conditions, which led to hunger, the interviews
should also contain interviewing the ECB, the EU Commission, and the
IMF, also regarding the „Greece“ support.
The decision on the
conditions takes place in the frame of the „Greece support“ by the
financial ministers of the member states, and in the EFSF by the
financial undersecretaries (the highest financial officers at the
national level) in the European body of the financial undersecretaries
with the name „Eurogroup Working Group“. For Germany, Dr. Jörg Asmussen
has been financial undersecratary until the end of 2011; he has also, in
the past, worked for Goldman Sachs und could therefore interesting for
an interview.
VI.4 CDS bets as a further possible motive
With
credit default swaps (CDS), banks bet, that a particular claim will not
be lost. Creditors often use these CDS in the way, that they bet, that
their own claims get lost. If they lose their claim, the at least win
their bet instead and then get the money for the won bet. That’s why CDS
often are also regarded as credit insurances. But they are rather
speculative financial products, because one can with them also bet on
the loss of claims of other creditors. According to the Financial Times
Deutschland article „Die Angst der Amerikaner“ of the 03.11.2011, the
volume of CDS for state bonds has been for Italy 218,8 billon €, for
Spain 121,1 billion €, for Greece 100,- billion €, for Germany 84,1
billion €, for Portugal 48,7 billion €, and for the USA 21,8 billion €.
These
numbers, however, become relative for the banks insofar, as they
themselves also emit CDS, they are themselves big creditors of the
states, and they secure their own claims on states also with CDS of
other banks.The balance of these claims (according to Financial Times
Deutschland) on Italy and of the CDS emitted by banks for the securing
of these claims is 15,- billion €. That, however, still says nothing
about the distribution of the numbers among the banks.
The
five biggest US banks (Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP
Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, here neutrally in alphabetical order)
alone sell, according to Financial Times Deutschland, allein 97 % of all
CDS traded in the USA.
Since banks have, as a result, their
significant own interests as creditors of the states and as emittors of
CDS, the real role of such bankers, who have a strong counselling
influence on policy and on the EU institutions in connection to the
financial crisis, be most closely regarded, especially if and which
incluence their counselling may have had on the conditions, which have
led to the humanitarian crisis at Greece.
VI.5 direct influence by bank lobbyists on Prime Ministers and financial ministers
According
to the taz article „Die Rettung ist nah“ of the 22.07.2011, Josef
Ackermann (former chairman of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank)
and Baudouin Prot (BNP Paribas) have, in their quality as official
cousellor of the German respectively the France government, for the
first time participated in the summit of the 21.07.2011.
www.taz.de/!74941/
Josef
Ackermann has not only been chairman of the board of directors of
Deutsche Bank, he is also active for the international private bank
association IIF (International Institute of Finance) and for the
preparation committee of the Bilderberg network.
This suggests, that
particularly for her political actions, external counselling plays a big
role, and Mr. Ackermann is possibly not the only one with influence on
her actions in the financial crisis.
Dr. Jörg Asmussen has, in former
times, been working for Goldman Sachs. Already before the assumption of
office of the current German federal finance minister Dr. Wolfgang
Schäuble, Dr. Asmussen has been under- secretary of finance, also
already at the time, when under the then German federal financial
minister Peer Steinbrück the German bank safeguarding institution Soffin
with funds of up to 480,- billion € has been created. Until the end of
2011, he represented Germany in the „Eurogroup Working Group“, the EU
body, which decides on the conditions of the EFSF. Since the 01.01.2012,
he is member of the board of the ECB instead.
In my quality as a
German, it is important to me that, as a matter of fairness, also the
question is investigated, how much of the responsibility, which the
Greeks, who have filed the charge, attribute to the German Chancellor
and to the German federal minister of finance, possibly is to be
attributed directly to particular banks.
VI.6 the particular influence of Goldman Sachs
The
political power of Goldman Sachs in Europe relies to a significant
degree in the positioning of its own former or even current employees at
leading political positions. In addition to that, Goldman Sachs, as e.
g. also the Deutsche Bank, belongs to the bank represented in the
Bilderberg network.
The powerful role of Goldman Sachs within
Bilderberg is also documentated by the long-standing member- ship of
Goldman Sachs counsellor Mario Monti in the steering committee of
Bilderberg. He is member of this committee today and has already been
member of it at the Bilderberg coonference 1989, on which the question
has been discussed in the network, if at that time only the euro or even
already a „souvereign Europe“ should be created.
Www.bilderbergmeetings.org/goverance.html Http://publicintelligence.net/1989-bilderberg-meeting-participant-list/
According
to the article of the Deutsche Mittelstandsnachrichten „Italien: Monti
ist im Nebenjob Berater bei Goldman Sachs“ of the 14.11.2011 the (not
elected by the people) Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is, according
to the annual report of this big bank, member of the „international
advisory committee“ of this bank. According to the same article, it has
also been Goldman Sachs, who have counselled Greece, when Greece has
achieved the accession to the euro by incorrect pieces of information
towards Eurostat. In addition to that, ECB President Mario Draghi has
been, in the years 2002 to 2005 vice president of Goldman Sachs. Also
the former US finance minister Hank Paulson seems to have connections to
Goldman Sachs, because he has able to sell his shares of this bank
early enough before the crisis for 500 million $, before the share price
has made inroads. The same Mr. Paulson has been the US finance
minister, when the 700,- billion $ bailout has been concluded; of the
700,- billion $, however, Goldman Sachs itself seems to have gained,
according to the Deutsche Mittelstandsnachrichten, only with 13,-
billion $.
And
even though all this Goldman Sachs is counselling „the European
governments and the EU regarding the management of the debt crisis“,
thus seems to play an even more central role in orchestrating the bank
safeguarding in the name of the safeguarding of the euro than the
Deutsche Bank. www.deutsche-mittelstands-nachrichten.de/2011/11/11670
The
importance of the control over the ECB and over the Italian government
is also shown in the article „Goldman: ‘Neuwahlen in Italien sind das
Schlimmste!’ “ of the Deutsche Mittelstandsnachrichten of the
09.11.2011. According to the article, Goldman Sachs has lobbyied for a
technocrat government and for new elections not before January, better
spring 2012 – successful, meanwhile His Excellency, Mr. Mario Monti,
governs Italiy. And Goldman Sachs really ask the ECB to to carry on
buying in big style Italian bonds; a crucial piece of evidence, that
Goldman Sachs also seems to be involved in bets regarding an Italian
state bankruptcy.
www.deutsche-mittelstandsnachrichten.de/2011/11/31177
As
the article „Goldman Sachs empfiehlt Wetten gegen Europa“ of the
Deutsche Mittelstandsnachrichten of the 15.11.2011 shows, this bank
meanwhile offers credit default swaps, with which one can speculate
against banks and insurance companies, at whom risks of the loss of
credit claims are assumed. In addition to that, Goldman Sachs strategist
Alan Brazil recommends to speculate against the euro, because the euro
is signifi- cantly weakened, if further rescue packages are made. The
article also says, that Goldman Sachs counsels „many European
governments“ regarding the debt crisis. Just in the weak before the
15.11.2011, Goldman Sachs has, at a meeting with the Spanish economic
minister Jose Manuel Campa and with creditor banks, presented concrete
„proposals“ „for further austerity measures at Spain“. This shows at the
same time the elevated power position in comparison to other creditor
banks. www.deutsche-mittelstands-nachrichten.de/2011/09/24129/
That
the Italian Prime Minister, His Excellency, Mario Monti, means, that
particularly Goldman Sachs governs Italy, is also shown by the article
„Italien – die Monti-Euphorie ist bereits vorbei“ of Alles Schall und
Rauch of the 17.11.2011. According to the article, already thousands of
Italians are protesting against the „government of the banker“ and shout
sentences like „We do not want a government of the banks“ or „Monti
makes beggars of us all.“ Alles Schall und Rauch prognosticates that,
His Ecellency, Mr. Monti does not only want to „fulfill the promises to
the EU and drastical austerity measures, but also to rigorously push
forward the privatization, and to drastically restrict the use of cash
in the every day payments transactions. What the Greeks already
experience, now will approach the Italians, wages down, taxes up, with
the impoverishment of the society, resulting from that.“
http://alles-schallundrauch.blogspot.com/2011/11/italien-die-monti-euphorie-ist-bereits.html#ixzz1e0APyoln
Goldman
Sachs also earns as „Betreuerbank“ of the EFSF, while the EFSF does not
say, how much these „Betreuerbanken“ finally earn at the cost of the
tax payers for their service to the EFSF (article „Wie Goldman Sachs am
EFSF mitverdient“ of the Deutsche Mittelstandsnachrichten vom
06.10.2011) www.deutsche-mittelstands-nachrichten.de/2011/710/27148/
Meanwhile, Dr. Jörg Asmussen is a counsellor of the SPD chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrück
http://jasminrevolution.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/ifd-leak-die-steinbruck-goldman-connection
The
actual decisive influence of Goldman Sachs on the ECB and on the
Italian government, and for a long time, on the German government, as
well as the significant influence of Goldman Sachs in the steering
committee of the Bilderberg network, combined with significant own
interests as a creditor of states and especially as a tenderer of CDS,
make urgently necessary an investigation, if and, if yes, in how far
this bank has influenced the behaviour of Germany, of Italy, and
particularly of the ECB regarding the conditions on Greece and regarding
the creation of the European financing mechanism.
At least the gentlemen Mario Draghi, (His Excellency) Mario Monti, and Dr. Jörg Asmussen should be interviewed on this.
VI.7 the role of the Bilderberg network
The
Bilderberg network is named after a hotel in the Netherlands, where in
the 1950ies, it has had its first meeting. At the annual Bilderberg
meeting under exclusion of the public, representatives of big banks,
insurance companies, industrial and media corporations have the
opportunity to impress their interests on politicians. Only the items of
the agenda and the guest lists are published. Regarding closer contents
and results of the meetings, silence is yet remaining.
The political
power, which Bilderberg makes feasible for banks, relies in first line
on the possibility, that the media embedded with Bilderberg can give
their attention to politicians and put bank-friendly issues on the media
agenda, and they can do censorship against issues and politicians,
which / who are unconfortable for banks.
The politicians, who are
newly invited as guests are most often, such politicians, whose career
goes up after their visit to Bilderberg. Giorgos Papandreou has been at
the Bilderberg conference 2009 at Greece and has been elected as Greek
Prime Minister only months after. Peer Steinbrück, who had already been
minister of finance until 2009, when the German bank safeguarding
umbrella Soffin has been concluded, has been at the Bilderberg
conference 2011 at Switzerland and now is chancellor candidate of the
second-biggest German party Socialdemocratical Party of Germany.
The official guest lists of the three most recent Bilderberg meetings are at the following link:
www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meetings.html
One of the links with all guest lists of the hitherto Bilderberg meetings is:
www.flegel-g.de/index-bilderberg-teilnehmerlisten.html
According
to the article „Where the influential people meet and talk“ of the
economic magazine „The Economist“ of the 20.01.2011, Etienne Davignon, a
former Vice President of the EU Commission, has been that chairman of
the Bilderberg group at the time of that article. And Josef Ackermann
(former chairman of the board of directors of the Deutsche Bank and
officially most important external counsellor of the German Chancellor
regarding the financial crisis) is in the preparatory committee of the
Bilderbergers. By the membership in the preparatory committee exists, in
additio to that, a crucial influence on who is allowed to participate
at the respective following Bilderberg meating. And as Mr. Davignon
himself admits to The Economist, the Bilderberg meeting 2010 at Spain
has dealt with the financial problems of Europe and with the question,
if the currency euro would survive.
The Economist article is at the link
http://www.economist.com/node/17928993
The
Bilderberg conference 09.-12. 06.2011 at Switzerland has taken place
short time before the election of the current IMF CEO Christine Lagarde.
The first two items of the Bilderberg meeting agenda 2011 „Innovation
and Budgetary Discipline“ and „the Euro and Challenges for the European
Union“ suggest the assumption, that art. 136 par. 3 TFEU and the
mechanisms, that one wanted respectively wants to base on that article,
have been discussed there in the sense of a briefing for the session of
the Ecofin Council at the 20.06.2011 and for the summit the European
Council at the 23./24.06.2011.
The Bilderberg meeting agenda 2011 is here:
http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meeting_2011
Also
the participants of the Bilderberg conference 2011 show, that there
must have taken place a preliminary discussion, undemocratical and
intransparent because of the exclusion of the public, for the behaviour
at the summit of the European Council at the 23.+24.06.2011, that the
decision of the European Council, also the decision on the ESM Treaty,
must have been partly preshaped at the Bilderberg conference 2011.
http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/participants_2011.html
Herman van
Rompuy, as the President of the European Council, the man with the
biggest power over the agenda and the publications of the European
Council, has been there, supported by Frans van Daele, the head of the
personnel department of the European Council. Also the then ECB
President Jean-Claude Trichet has been at the meeting. The connection to
the EU Commission has been secured by Etienne Davignon (the then
chairman of the Bilderbergers), Joaquin Almunia (Vice President of the
EU Commission), and Neelie Kroes
(Vice
President of the EU Commission). Also Pascal Lamy (general director of
the WTO) and Robert Zoellick (president of the World Bank) have been
there. Of the financial ministers of that time, George Papaconstantinou
(Greece), George Osborne (Great Britain), and Giulio Tremonti (Italy)
have participated. Of particular importance of the banking sector has
been Josef Ackermann as participant of the preparatory committee, but
also the chairmen of the national banks of Canada and of Belgium, a
former chairman of the US issuing bank Federal Reserve, and
representatives of further big private banks like, e. g., Goldman Sachs
and Chase Manhatten Bank, have been there.
Since Herman van Rompuy
has brought the draft of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU at 16./17.12.2010 into the
European Council, it needs to be investigated urgently, if and in how
far the corporations, which are involved with Bilderberg, have
participated in creating the draft.
How undemocratical the European
financial mechanism is, now also is depicted by the democracy index 2011
of the economical magazine „The Economist“. Even though this economical
magazine participates at Bilderberg, the results of the European
financing mechanism and of the „Greece support“ are criticized in clear
words on p. 20:
„The main reason for the decline in democracy scores
in 2011 in the region has been the erosion in sovereignty and democratic
accountability associated with the effects of and responses to the euro
zone crisis (five of seven countries that have experienced a decline in
their scores–Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland). Most
dramatically, in two countries (Greece and Italy) democratically elected
politicians have been replaced by technocrats at the head of
governments. Six euro zone governments collapsed in 2011 and there have
been growing public protests and a proliferation of new political
parties and movements. Policy in some countries is no longer being set
by national legislatures and elected politicians, but is effectively set
by official creditors, the European Central Bank, the European
Commission and the IMF. The severity of austerity measures has tended to
weaken social cohesion and diminish furth trust in public institutions,
which had already been declining since the 2008-09 economic crisis.“
www.vedomosti.ru/cgi-bin/vedomosti_15-12-2011.pdf?file=2011/12/15/0_1951216671
Yours sincerely,
Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing
Attachments:
-FTD article „Die Angst der Amerikaner“ (in German, only on paper) –proof of the German citizenship (photocopy, only on paper)
-article „IFD-Leak – die Steinbruck – Goldman – Connection“ (in German) -EU regulation 2011/0276 (COD) (only on CD)
-EU regulation 2011/385 (COD)
-EU regulation 2011/0386 (COD)
-ECJ judgement on C-203/03
-law on the modification of the BSchuWG (file number 17/9049) -statement on the euro summit 09.12.2011
-EFSF memorandum of understanding on Greece, February 2012 (file number 17/8731) (only on CD) (in English and German)
-initiation Art. 136 (3) TFEU + conclusions summit of the European Council 16./17.12.2010
-Bilderberg guest lists 2011, 2010, and 2009
-conclusions
summit of the European Council 24./25.03.2011 -conclusions summit of
the European Council 23./24.06.2011 -WIFO study (in German)
-Eurogroup 28.11.2010
-Davison Budhoo’s resignation from the IMF (only on CD) (in German)
Contents
I. the connection between the Roman Statute and the universal human rights
II. On the definition of a crime against humanity
III. The systematical attack on the health at Greece
III.1
how the conditions against Greece systematically destroy the Greek
health system III.2 the humanitarian catastrophe in the Greek health
system
III.3 human rights expert criticizes Greek austerity measures III.4 the attack on the nutrition at Greece
III.5 drastical cuts at Portugal and Spain and hunger at Spain III.6 further destruction of the health sector at Romania
IV.
proof of the systematical nature of the attack by means of the „little
treaty change“ (art. 136 par. 3 TFEU) IV.1 safeguarding the financial
sector as the real cause of the excessive strictness
IV.2 the obligation to the „strictness“ as the system of inhumanity
IV.3 the Budgetary Surveillance and the instrumentalization of EU funds
IV.4
political power partly in the hands of the private creditors via the
state insolvency procedure of the ESM IV.5 how art. 136 par. 3 TFEU
threatens to oust the universal law
IV.6 how art. 136 par. 3 TFEU would lay the axe on the EU itself
V.
examples for the strictness of the „practice“ of the IMF, reaching on
to art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute V.1 prognosticable conditions
against the food supply
V.2 IMF conditions one of the main reasons for the rise of tuberculosis und further diseases
V.3 proof of the inhumanity of the „practice“ of the IMF at the example of the UNICEF study „Adjustment with a Human Face“
V.4 „Vienna initiative“ older than anticipated and systematical abuse of power of the IMF at the favour of specific big banks
V.5 strictness of the „practice“ of the IMF at the service of big banks
VI. further considerations regarding the subjective part
VI.1 possible tracks according along the history of the creating of art. 136 par. 3 TFEU
VI.2 responsibility for the systematical extent of the strictness
VI.3 concrete procedure of the creation of the conditions to Greece
VI.4 CDS bets as a further possible motive
VI.5 direct influence by bank lobbyists on Prime Ministers and financial ministers
VI.6 the particular influence of Goldman Sachs
VI.7 the role of the Bilderberg network
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